


Reconciliation

by raviiel



Category: Naruto
Genre: Age 20, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Coping, Enemies to Friends, Humor, Missions, Multi, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Chapter 699 (Naruto), Reconciliation, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, and also
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-04-24 01:32:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14345178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raviiel/pseuds/raviiel
Summary: Just when she thought things couldn't get any shittier, an accidental slip of big news tears her world a new asshole. Now she has to get away and put herself back together, and she wonders,Why, gods, why won't you just kill me instead?Now with OC art! Read the notes.





	1. the gods and everyone else clearly hate you, suffer for it

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is more or less a sequel to my other OC fic, [Be Happy (For What You Can't Have)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13912842), in where my kid's heart is broken multiple times in one day because the love of her life is marrying someone else. You don't have to read it to understand this fic!
> 
> I'd also like to give a shout out to my friend Seals, who without, I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as far with this fic as I have. Thanks for everything you've done for me. ☆
> 
> This is Asami! Both her [age 20](https://i.imgur.com/m6TaXaj.png) appearance and [her ANBU appearance, along with her mask](https://i.imgur.com/cun1ZhC.png)!

Three months. That's how long it's been since the wedding. Would it be accurate to say that everything is fine and dandy now? Probably not, because she and the... _issue_ are on so many levels of dissociation that they stopped existing within the same universe eons ago. Instead of accepting what she could never have like she should—like a mature, emotionally responsible adult _would_ _—_ she removes herself from it as much as she can.

Asami hasn't seen Hinata since that night.

She hates herself.

"You're not focusing. Your strokes are getting messy."

Jerking, the brush flies off the canvas and leaves a bold, splattered line of black behind. Sai flicks paint from the back of his hand. Asami looks at him sheepishly. He sighs.

"Let's take a break."

"No." she says adamantly.

"You're not in the right mindset to be painting."

"I'm doing what you said!"

"Asami, you painted something that looks more like a cross between a cat and a demon."

A hundred indignant rebuttles on her tongue, Asami looks at the canvas—he's not wrong. The cat doesn't even _look_ like the statue they've been sitting around for an hour now, and instead looks more like something otherworldly possessed it; ears too long, tail too curled, eyes too narrowed, fur standing on end.

Her brush clacks in frustration against its place on the ink stone.

"This is fucking ridiculous."

"You were doing so well." Sai points out, motioning to the landscape. "Why do the details always trip you up?"

"Because details are for losers!"

He looks at her, unimpressed. "How have you survived this long as a shinobi." he says as a statement rather than a question.

The sun assaults her dry eyes as soon as she flops back, so she throws an arm over them. Where are her eye drops? Probably left them at home again... Today is shit.

She listens to Sai move around her, clearly knowing they're finished for the day. It's not like she doesn't _want_ to finish the painting and have it be good, but these days, her mind has been getting farther away from her. She hasn't been able to focus, to think straight, to sleep properly... Her life is turning on its head and it's bullshit. The more she thinks about it, the more it pisses her off.

Squeezing her eyes together to get some semblance of moisture into them, she shoots up straight and huffs.

"I'm going home."

Sai watches as she begins to pack away supplies and then seal them away into a scroll that had been laying next to the ink stone. She pauses, gauges his expression—bland, slightly tight around the corners of his lips, eyebrows tilted ever so much towards the insides—and then sighs, her usual friend in guilt swishing forward.

"My eyes are bothering me, they need rest. You don't want me to go _blind,_ do you?"

The scrutiny just barely present in his eyes tells her he's not buying it, but she can't care at this point. Being with Sai is almost as good as being alone, but that's the keyword— _almost._ If she doesn't get somewhere isolated and scream for at least ten minutes straight, she's really going to lose her mind.

"Okay." he responds simply, and follows her example in packing up.

It's let go for now, but they'll be back at this tomorrow. She might break the canvas then.

 

For the sake of not having to pay special attention to where she's going, Asami takes the back roads towards home. Convenience wasn't given much thought when she decided to continue living there, but it hadn't been like she had much of a choice; her mother is constantly two broken strings away from razing everything to the ground and _someone_ has to cage her. Asami will be damned if she lets some other ANBU manhandle her mother.

Being outside the village, though... She misses it. Bitterness aside, reigning peace meant a shorter supply of missions—no good news for a military state, and not for her either. Restlessness has been rattling around her insides for _weeks_ now, her fingers itching for her tanto or a bow or _something._ Yet, nothing. Kakashi has been letting her sit around and do nothing—he should know better than that. At this point, she'll even use shadow clones and fight them. She'll even tag along with Takeshi-sensei if it means getting to do _something._

"I'm home." she calls to an empty house. Masa's chakra is absent, meaning she's probably off meditating somewhere. All the better for Asami's nerves.

The first thing she does is head towards her bathroom, for the medicine cabinet, and then pulls out a small bottle prescribed to her by Lady Tsunade. She grunts when the droplets hit her eyes, but after blinking a few times, she sighs in relief and slumps against the door. She glances out the window.

All the better for her nerves, sure, but it's a crapshoot on even the best of days as to what Masa may be doing when outside the house. It's not that Asami doesn't trust her to actually be meditating, but... They need _someplace_ to live, and the Leaf is still their best option. Her mouth twists wryly.

She heads downstairs and steps out onto the back deck, bites her thumb, and then throws her palm to the floor. From a cloud of smoke that wafts in the smell of the forest after rain appears a large buck, standing nearly two heads above her. Her hand automatically comes up to stroke the side of his face and his ears flicker around the crown of sharp, wildly sprouted antlers that gleam almost obsidian in the sunlight.

"Masa." she instructs with a shallow bow of her head.

Akihiko bows in return and Asami smoothly dodges being impaled by his horns. "Is there a message you would like me to deliver, or shall I simply watch?"

She resists rubbing the bridge of her nose. Masa will know when Akihiko's arrived either way, which also means she'll know why he's there.

"Just... Keep an eye on her, okay?"

His pure white gaze regards her for a moment, but he inclines his head one more time before turning to bound off into the treeline. She watches after him.

_...I need a nap._

After heading back upstairs and throwing herself onto her bed, she groans. Why is it that the _one_ time she needs to be doing things, needs to be _busy,_ Kakashi refuses to send her out anywhere? What the hell is he thinking? She's _ANBU,_ and the stupid tattoo is inked into her arm to prove it. It can't be that there's no work for ANBU to do—an absolute load of bullshit because her subordinates are coming and going from missions all the damn time. Even _Sai's_ being assigned to missions abroad. It's like Kakashi's singled her out and decided, _Well, since you're already miserable, why don't I add to that?_

Hokage-cide is sounding pretty good about now.

Sometime between contemplating how to best shoot an arrow through Kakashi and wondering where she'd hideout after that, Asami dozes off.

 

It seems like not long after, she wakes up to something digging painfully into her arm. She shoots up immediately. A hawk jumps off her and to the windowsill, tilting its head and shaking out its wings. She glares at it, rubbing the raw indents in her skin, and momentarily considers pushing it out the window. Only the sight of the summons note attached to its tarsus stops her, and one glance at the black band tying the note tells her what she needed to know— _A mission._ And not just any mission, an _ANBU_ mission.

Finally!

The hawk flies off after delivery and Asami rolls out of bed, jumping from foot to foot in an effort to loosen her body. She stretches her senses across the house and finds that Masa is back—sitting on the deck, and Akihiko is with her, having apparently not dismissed himself. _I swear, sometimes I think he's_ her _summon and not mine..._

Ignoring the annoyance for once, she cleans herself up, pulls her thick hair back into a tight bun, shucks on her ANBU uniform, and then pulls her mask from a storage scroll hidden behind potted plants. The mask had been carved in the image of a deer; black nose, curved mouth, painted with deep reds and greens with additional black sharpening around the circular eye holes. She smooths her fingers along the purplish garnet banding thick under the eyes that represents her bloodline trait.

She sighs.

After slipping the mask on, she taps three hard times on the house's walls, and then disappears.

Appearing on the slip of ledge outside of the open window, Asami presses herself against the wall to wait for Kakashi to finish his conversation with another shinobi. She peers out to the village and mindlessly clocks faces she does and doesn't recognize, counting the seconds.

"Deer, enter."

_Five hundred and fourteen._

She body flickers from her spot to appear in front of the Hokage. From under the mask, she raises an eyebrow at the large crow obediently standing at the corner of the desk, eyeing her with familiarity.

_Is that...?_

"It flew in this morning." Kakashi begins without preamble. "Judging by its energy and full reserves, it didn't fly far, meaning it was from inside the country." He motions to rolls of paper too big to have been tied around the crow's tarsus. "We've received intel from near the border of Fire and Reeds of suspicious parties mobilizing close to the villages in the area. Food, weapons, water, and other survival supplies have started to go missing, which could be the work of starving pillaging, or supplying for a group on the move." Shifting in his chair as if it's perpetually uncomfortable, he rests his masked cheek on his fist.

"I don't need to tell you how delicate this situation is, Deer." he says, serious despite his relaxed posture. "We can't afford any perceptible border skirmishes, no show that both the Land of Fire and the Hidden Leaf have relented. Peace may be the current state of affairs, but it won't remain that way forever." He snorts to himself. "I trust the other Kage about as far as I can throw them, and I'm sure they say the same of me and each other."

He sighs, muttering something that sounds an awful lot like, _When will Naruto stop playing house and take me out of my misery..._

_House?_ Asami thinks to herself.

She shifts her body weight in askance of, _What do you need me to do?_

Kakashi sits straighter.

"Someone from the village is already out there surveying the situation, but he hasn't reported back because he's... Well, he's stubborn." His second sigh is long-suffering. "In any case, I need you to go out there, inspect the circumstances, and if you discern no evident or immediate threat, report back. However... Should you find legitimate, _valid—"_ He emphasizes it because he knows the kind of person she is, "valid reason, Deer. Valid."

She waves her hand, annoyed.

"Then you may carry out action as you see fit. I trust that you'll work with our shinobi already dispensed out there." He says it weird, like he doesn't necessarily believe it, that it's a pipe dream. "Do try to come back alive, yes? I don't want to imagine what your former genin team will do to me if they found out I sent you to your death."

She snorts.

Kakashi stands from his desk and the crow respectfully hops onto his arm. He walks to the open window. "It will be waiting for you. You have until zero hundred hours to be out of the village and on your way to the Fire–Reeds border. Please don't send your summons crashing through my windows again to alert me that you're gone."

Despite her best efforts, Asami snickers.

"Dismissed."

With a swipe of his arm, Asami body flickers out of the room.

 

Finding Masa resting on the deck after she's returned and changed out of her uniform is no surprise. The only difference is Akihiko's absence.

Matsumoto Masa is the spitting image of Asami—or, the other way around. Untamed hair, earthen brown skin, dark red eyes that reflect more of blood than rubies, and decades of stress and mental health issues line her face; particularly under the almond-shaped eyes where long eyelashes barely conceal them. She appeared aged and wise, but her mind is hanging by a thread that Asami has put knots into time and again.

"How long?" she asks when Asami lands in front of her.

"Undetermined. Depends on the circumstances." Asami responds. Masa scrutinizes her for a long moment before opening her arms.

Without hesitation, Asami dives into her mother's lap, wrapping her arms around her middle and nuzzling into the warmth of her body and the soft fabric of her day yukata. These times are few and far between, more so the older Asami got, but she'll relish any intimate contact with her mother that both their personal bubbles and her own pride would allow. It usually only happens before she leaves on lengthy missions.

Hand running through Asami's taken-down hair, Masa murmurs, "Pack efficiently. Civilian clothes, disguise, enough food, keep close to a water source if you can. May I ask where?"

Asami curls her hold more snug. Shinobi law restricts disclosure of any information about missions to anyone not involved, but she's always tipping past that little line anyway.

"Northwest. Border." she answers into the fabric of her mother's top.

"Alone?"

"Meeting up with someone."

"Work well with them, fawn."

That's rich coming from her, but Asami doesn't bother to comment on what they both know.

"Come back to me."

"I will, mama."

Allowing herself a few more moments of indulgence, Asami finally pulls away. The waiting messenger crow on her bedroom windowsill caws obnoxiously.

Masa studies it and then looks back at her. "You'll be heading that way, then?"

_That_ way, she says, and Asami nods.

"Make sure you stop by to check in on your aunt, then."

At the mention of her aunt, Asami visibly perks. "I will!"

The crow caws again.

 

Two hours past sunset, Asami has finished packing physical effects and is going about putting her uniform on. _I don't know when the next time I'll have a hot shower is, so it's a good thing I took one._ Camping's fine, sure, but it's the _water pressure_ she misses. All that's left is food, and...

She presses her lips together.

_That's not how I want to see her._ Wouldn't that just be typical though? It's always like her to take the coward's way out. (Just more reason to hate herself, she supposes.)

Down in the kitchen, tins clank together and wood clacks around. Hostility is absent, but she pauses in the entryway anyway.

"What."

The crow—which she'd thought had gotten tired of waiting and flew back to its master—is hopping around the countertops next to the wooden bread bin. Its gate is open and the bread from inside is spilling out onto the counter. The crow pauses to look over its shoulder and stares at her, bread in its beak that almost frowns as if to say, _What do you want? Why are you interrupting me?_

"Pan." she says in realization. "Pan! The bread, you thief!"

She lunges over the counter in the middle and Pan, the crow, swoops upwards. She bounces off the other counter's ledge and bread scatters to the floor before she channels chakra into her feet to stick to the ceiling. Pan lands on top of the fridge, nonchalantly putting the bread down and picking at it. Asami glares.

"You win this time, fucking brat." she says, jabbing a finger in the crow's direction. "But I'm telling your _mom."_

Pan caws indignantly at her, but she knows he actually doesn't care.

Dropping to the floor, Asami huffs and then goes about cleaning the kitchen before packing away food for the trip. It's about a day's worth of travel to the Fire–Reeds border, and she only plans on stopping twice to eat and rest for two hours maximum.

Night has set in by the time she's done with inventory, and the breath she takes is long and stupidly shuddering.

_Gotta get back to normal sometime, right?_

Wrong.

She goes anyway.

After the three customary hits on the wall outside her bedroom window, mask on, Asami disappears into the night.

 

•

 

It's not long before she finds herself in the trees of a mostly unfamiliar property.

_No chakra alarms?_ she thinks to herself. _Maybe they're closer in._

She activates her eyes and the world melts into black. There are no chakra signatures anywhere close—no ANBU on guard, how odd—but inside the house, there are two flares close to each other. One of them moves more volatile— _Naruto—_ and the other is subdued. She deactivates her eyes, rubbing at them.

_Did I remember my eye drops this time?_

She drops to the ground. The glass door at the back of the house slides open moments later.

"Asami-chan...?"

Asami winces at the sound of the voice she's been dying to hear ever since she abandoned it after the wedding reception. She pushes herself to emerge from the shadows and palms up her mask to the top of her head.

"How'd you know, princess?"

Hinata stays firmly next to the door, hand braced on the wall. "I would recognize your chakra signature anywhere." she murmurs, and Asami's heart palpitates. "Why are you..." She pauses to take a breath, and then says, "What brings you here so late at night?"

_Fuck, didn't think of a good reason to show up. Great going, asshole._ Asami thinks to herself, and then stupidly motions at her uniform, licking her lips.

Hinata looks her over before asking, "How long will you be gone?"

"...Shouldn't be long." Asami admits slowly. "But, y'know. Never know and all that. A week, maybe?"

Naruto had decided not to join ANBU, so Hinata wasn't used to the irregular schedule they worked on. To think that Hinata would miss her tickles—with thousands of needles. Still... The three months apart without any word to each other has her wondering if Hinata had been glad to be rid of her.

The step Hinata suddenly takes puts Asami back one. They pause, stalemated.

"...Sorry." she mutters. What a bad habit to have, pretending like her best friend's touch will burn her.

Hinata smiles at her, understanding in a way Asami can't deal with, and when she holds out a hand, she almost can't stop herself from grasping it desperately.

_Have some restraint, you fucking idiot._

Taking as subtle a deep breath as possible, Asami urges her feet forward and reaches a shaky hand forward to grasp Hinata's. Even through the thick material of the glove, it's still so soft. Asami has to smack her brain into thinking about things that don't involve touching between them.

"May I hug you?" Hinata asks gently, as if Asami is a small animal on the fritz.

All she can do is nod dumbly.

So Hinata carefully weaves her arms around Asami's taller form. It's stiff at first because Asami doesn't know what to do, but when body heat starts to seep into her, she slowly relaxes. Her arms go under Hinata's and she puts her chin to her shoulder.

_This is bad._ she thinks to herself. _Why am I doing this to myself?_

Rationality doesn't stop her from sinking her everything into the embrace. If she's going to be away from home for gods know how long... doesn't she deserve at least a little consolation?

Just when she tilts her head into Hinata's soft, dark hair, the glass door slides open again.

"Asami!" Naruto greets brightly.

She blinks several times, both snapping out of her daze and surprised at his absolute _glow._ It's almost like the Nine-Tails' chakra is radiating out of him in happiness.

"Are you congratulating Hinata?" he asks. Hinata tenses in her arms, quickly pulling back to look at him, panic-stricken.

Asami's stomach flips.

"Con... gratulating her on... what?"

"It's nothing." Hinata says quickly, which spurs Asami's suspicion even more.

"It's not!" Naruto insists, clapping Asami on the shoulder. She jolts. "She's your best friend, don't you want her to know first?"

The world slows as Asami switches gazes between Naruto and Hinata. Chills slosh in the pit of her gut and dread soaks through her, knotting her muscles under her skin. Even without the smarts of her friends like Fumihiro or Shikamaru, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that—

_Oh no._

She inhales sharply. Hinata's head quickly turns to her, eyes widened because she realizes that _Asami_ has realized.

_Oh no._

Taking the plunge, Hinata opens her mouth. Asami's heart lodges itself in her throat.

_No, no no no._

"Asami, I'm—"

_Nooo no no no no no no no—_

"—pregnant."

And Asami stares. She stares,

and she stares,

 

and stares,

 

 

and stares.

 

 

 

And she cannot move. She cannot think. She cannot breathe.

 

Her name is called once, twice. Through a filter several walls thick. Into her ears clogged by the pounding of her heart.

 

_Pregnant._

 

"...ou alright?"

There's a gentle touch to her shoulder and she flinches, and instinctively going near the handle of her tanto.

"Asami."

Her eyes snap to Hinata's, who watches her firmly. She opens her mouth, but nothing comes out at first. Her heart wants to leap out and maul them.

_Pregn—_

Her mind screeches full-stop and changes gears.

_Mission. You have a mission. Mission. You need to leave. Mission._

The echoing caw of a crow snaps her out of it, so her brain promptly shuts down, resets, and goes into self-preservation mode.

_"Congrats."_ she hears herself say. _"I'm happy for you."_

Naruto looks to Hinata in confusion and Hinata reaches out a hand for Asami.

She steps back, slips her mask on, and then says, _"I have to leave now. Goodbye."_

Once she blends into the shadow, the figures of Hinata and Naruto shrink, and she's on her way. Dashing out of the village. Dashing away from the pain. She has to get out of here. She has to _stay_ out of here. Away from here. Away from... _that._

_Pregnant._

_Pregnant._

_Pregnant._

 

_Hinata._

 

_Pregnant._

 

 

If she's lucky, she'll die on this mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw u were just going to say goodbye but then u find out she's pregnant  
> Poor kiddo. :'^)
> 
> If there's anything you're confused about or would like to know about, feel free to ask! I'll work on posting the second chapter within a couple of days, so stay tuned!


	2. in where the gods prove their hate for you, continue suffering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another level of dissociation to make it all better—except it doesn't get better. It gets worse, and it looks like it's all downhill from here.

An hour, wasted.

The crater is big, at least six or seven times her size, and she sits on the trunk of a fallen tree in the pit of it. Wildlife had evacuated the area as soon as the earth cracked, and now there was only Pan; sitting in a high branch, judging her. He's been cawing at her for the last thirty minutes to get a move-on, but she can't. She _can't._

Self-preservation had shut off twenty miles out from the Leaf and wrath had swiftly taken its place. Trees had fallen one after the other. The hole in the ground had gotten deeper. Stray sparks still flicker on the ground where her white-hot tanto had hacked and slashed.

_Disgraceful._

Disgust and hatred saturate every fiber of her skin, weighing her down so much that her legs probably won't work even if she wants them to.

Pan continues to crow at her. She's too exhausted (emotionally, physically, or maybe both. Who knows) to get angry at him; she knows she's wasting time, that this is unprofessional as _fuck,_ and that if her superiors found out she took a bite out of mother earth because she couldn't _control her emotions,_ she'd be shamed until her great grandchildren felt it.

But—

 

 

_Pregnant._

 

 

Asami screams and Pan ruffles his wings.

 

•

 

Sometime between screaming her throat raw and knocking down another tree, Asami had gotten on the move again. The pace is sluggish, her feet refusing to move any faster than a drag, and every few minutes hears Pan crowing at her. If she doesn't punish herself before all of this is over, maybe her unknown partner will on the account of her lateness.

If only there were a sealing technique that _isn't_ forbidden to block off all recent memories—or just isolate the ones about the mission so she could _focus._ The violent urge to rub at her irritated eyes isn't helping.

After three more hours of trudging and slapping her focus around, Asami finally calls it quits. She collapses against the trunk of a towering tree and tips up her mask to drink from her animal skin canteen; since a river is nearby, she's generous with how much she drowns.

Being in the middle of nowhere means a campfire would be safe, but she's not keen on giving her position away at all—and honestly, collecting firewood would be a pain in the ass.

Her head _thunks_ back against the tree and she closes her eyes, senses naturally unraveling around her. There are no close villages, no small settlements, no people... Just forest, for miles and miles. Her chakra slowly begins to level itself with the surrounding energy, and she wonders; is this is how Sages feel? She wants to find out for herself, eventually. Blending in with nature and feeling oneness with it sounds amazing, uplifting... _freeing._

If there's only nature, people can't hurt you.

Talons scrape against the high branches.

"Are you just going to sit there for the rest of the night?"

Her body twitches to attention at the sound of a croaky voice ringing all around her.

"I didn't think you would let some bad news trip you up this much, brat."

Asami chucks a rock in the voice's direction. It whizzes through the air. "Who the hell are you callin' a brat!" she snaps.

"The snot-nosed little thing sitting at the base of the tree."

Fueled by irritation, she pushes herself up and practically flies up the tree. Squatting on a branch, she peers around; despite popular belief, her night vision is actual _shit,_ so activates her eyes and searches for a flare of chakra until one is spied on the tree across from her.

"Pan...?" she asks. "I didn't know you could _talk."_

"There's a lot of things you don't know, child." Pan responds. His voice sounds funny, like he hasn't cleared his throat in the last thousand years and is a chain smoker on top of that. "Like how to control your emotions and separate them from the mission."

A kunai darts his way and shoots straight through the trunk behind him, but he just flutters to the side nonchalantly.

"Like I said."

"Fuck you!" she spits. "Mind your business!"

Pan caws and shakes out his head. "You are my business, little fawn."

"Don't call me that!"

Asami lunges at him, but he nosedives towards a lower branch. "Sloppy." he says. "Do you have any bread?"

"Not for you!" she says, following after him.

The stupid game continues for fifteen more minutes; Pan taunting Asami and asking if she has any bread, and Asami's obscenities echoing through the woods as she prances from branch to branch in his wake. It's not long before she howls in frustration.

"I'm supposed to be resting, not chasing after you, bread-crazy bird!"

She collapses against the branches closest to the canopy and drops her arms at her sides. If Norikuma and Fumihiro had only seen her chasing after a _bird_ through the treetops like a mad squirrel, they'd be judging her so hard. Sai would just look at her and turn away like they were complete strangers. She snorts.

 

"aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA _AAAAAAAA **AAAAAAAAA!"**_

 

Whatever fauna had been left in the area promptly flees.

Asami staggers to her feet and smacks her cheeks a couple rough times before slipping her mask down.

"Are you ready to get going?" Pan asks her, tilting his head.

With a short nod, Asami darts off right after he flies.

 

•

 

By the terrain's tell, Asami is closing in on the border. The lush forests of Fire Country are thinning out into flatter land, rivers splitting off and either running south to feed into the lakes surrounding the Hidden Rain, or connecting to the rivers that will feed into Reed Country basins. Up in the sky, the sun is high and warming the visible parts of her brown skin.

Now that she's far, far from the village, she feels... lighter. Maybe it has to do with the acre of land she destroyed, or maybe just the fact that she's removed herself yet another layer from the situation back home. Either way, she can _breathe._ Even if she's been going nonstop for several hours now, it feels like she could go for several hours more—that's probably just the slight manic episode she's been having talking though.

It's only at a high and curved outcropping of rock that she finally forces herself to stop. The mass is enough to hide her entire form and she ducks past the bushels of cattails to find rest inside. Besides, her canteen had emptied out a while back anyway, and when's the last time she ate?

Pan's talons click against some of the stone behind her.

"Do you know where you are?" he asks. She waves her hand distractedly at him. "If so, I'm heading back."

Asami pauses to flick her sight over her shoulder. "Already?"

"Am I your babysitter? Are you going to throw another fit without me?"

She shoots a rock in his direction. _"No."_ she answers as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm a big girl. I don't 'throw fits'."

His beady eyes are unimpressed.

When he doesn't immediately leave, Asami realizes why and sighs exasperatedly. She unseals a thick, tied cloth from one of her scrolls and goes into it.

"Here, you greedy butt."

She tosses a bread roll to him— _her last one for the day—_ and he shamelessly dives for it, the beat of his wings bouncing off the walls of the outcropping in an echo. Muffled thanks tumble out of his mouth, and then he's flapping away.

"Hey!" she calls after him. "Make sure to tell Auntie I'll see her soon, okay! As soon as I'm done with this mission! And save some _pancakes_ for me!"

A piece of bread—suspiciously hard—charges at her, and all she does is tip to the side, snickering.

She takes a moment to revel in her new aloneness and then pulls up her mask only enough to expose the bottom half of her face. Stretching her arms above her head to pull out her tired body, she then gets to work on making temporary camp. Rest is going to do her good, but the regrets of pushing so damn hard before will mercilessly roll in. Hopefully her mission partner won't be too pissed, but... They can always go fuck themselves if they are.

_How come Kakashi wouldn't tell me who it was?_

ANBU rarely know each other's identities, but they do know each other by animal code name—she hadn't gotten one in the mission description, meaning her partner wasn't ANBU at all. That would be a first.

Sunset was turning out when Asami was settling down for a much-needed nap, chakra alarms ready to be set and her supply scrolls secured in a hiding spot. It was when she was putting herself to rest that all of her senses suddenly flared.

 _Breach, breach, breach—_ Mask slid back into place, tanto in hand, she tiptoes past where the chakra alarms were supposed to be triggered, and then sidles around the edge of the outcropping. The signature is... _strong,_ something she hardly ever feels unless it's around someone like Kakashi, or Naruto—sheer _power_ reeling tight underneath the skin, and all of her hairs stand on edge.

 _No sweat,_ she thinks to herself, but it's bullshit. She's tired and needs to _rest_ but every nerve in her body is taut with alertness. _Where are you..._

Her eyes activate and she quickly scans around the area, finding nothing until— _There. Behind the wall._

Silently, she leaps up to the top of the jutting rock and crawls across the jagged top until—

Metal sings through the air. The blade of Asami's tanto grinds against someone else's sword, shooting off sparks between them. Her eyes deactivate, from dark magenta to wine red, and suddenly, the person's features are all too clear in front of her.

"Uchiha?!" she exclaims, breaking protocol and flicking her mask all the way up.

"Matsumoto." says the one and only Uchiha Sasuke, very coolly.

"What the fuck!"

She throws herself back, tanto at the ready, eyes narrowed. "Why the hell are you _attacking_ me?" she growls, positioned defensive.

"I didn't know it was you." he explains simply, but she's not buying it—not with _his_ history. _"You're_ the one Kakashi sent?"

At Kakashi's mention, Asami draws up short, brain tripping over itself.

"Hang on a sec— _You?!"_ She points her sword at him. _"You're_ supposed to be my partner? And what the hell's _that_ supposed to mean, you asshole!"

Sasuke sighs at her, sheathing his katana. Asami groans, dropping her face into her hands.

That's _why that fucker wouldn't tell me who it was... Uchiha fucking Sasuke..._

She drags her bare fingernails down her face. She _hates_ this guy. Not even because of all the dumb shit he did, but just by virtue that he's one of the biggest assholes she's ever had the displeasure of knowing. How the hell did Team Seven put up with him?

_Oh my gods... I'm going to kill myself before this is over. That's it. I'm gone._

"I can't deal with you right now, fucker." she grouses, slipping her tanto back into its sheath and heading back for her small camp. "I literally _just_ got here and I've barely rested and—Ugh!"

Sasuke snorts to himself and follows behind her.

"I don't want you following me!"

"You're being very unprofessional."

She's very tempted to jump him right then and there, but— _The mission, fuck._

"I hate this." she says bluntly when they turn the corner into the curve of rock. She plops to the ground and eyes him where he still stands at the narrow entrance, in the reed bushel. "You just gonna stand there or _what?"_

"You didn't rest at all during your travel?" he asks, though it's obvious he's looking his nose down at her.

"What's it to you, asshole?"

"I'm taking watch then. Two hours, tops. I can see you've wasted enough time, so we're going over intel as soon as you wake up."

She blinks at him, owlishly. _He'll_ take watch? It's not like she doesn't trust him—she trusts Kakashi, the fucker who put her in this situation, and she trusts Naruto (as unwilling as it is), and if _they_ trust Uchiha Sasuke, then... It's not like she has much choice at this point.

_Fucking... Fuck._

"Fine, whatever." she huffs, and then settles into the very back, curling up. Now she wishes she had her father's haori; as uncomfortable as everything suddenly is, it would be a definite soother. Alas...

"Yo," she calls before drifting away. Sasuke turns his head only slightly. "Set the chakra alarms, will you? I'll sleep better."

She doesn't stay up to see if he does, but figures it's not that big a deal if he doesn't. He's _Uchiha Sasuke,_ after all. Who'd want to go up against him?

 

Exactly two hours later, Asami wakes up just as Sasuke lands on the ground in front of her. He stares down and all she can think to do at the moment is flip him off while she wakes up. The asshole at least has the courtesy to let her splash her face awake with water, though her body clock is arguing against everything because it's _nighttime_ and _dammit,_ she hasn't been on a mission in _months._

_Kakashi, I'm going to murder you with my bare hands. I swear to Miyado._

After begrudgingly waking up, Asami unseals an apple from her scrolls and then joins Sasuke on top of the rocks. She settles just as he finishes unrolling a hand-drawn map on a scroll; detailing it are the border between Fire and Reeds, villages marked on each side, and then one large X drawn between the Tenchi and Kannabi bridges.

"Whatta ya got for me?" she asks, snapping a bite out of the fruit. "And really, man? On top of a rock? And you were calling _me_ unprofessional..."

Sasuke doesn't rise to the bait and starts without preface.

"Each of these villages," he says, picking out the dots with scribbled names next to them, "has been intruded upon. Small-scale things—one or two animals going missing, handfuls of weapons disappearing, small wells suddenly running dry—clearly, _someone's_ stocking up for something."

Asami taps the shrinking apple against her cheek. "But not small enough for the villagers to miss it, huh?"

"No." he agrees. "Since it's not only one village, it's safe to say they've been lifting about the same amount from each place to amass somewhere else." That's when he points to the X. "Fortunately, it looks like they were foolish enough to make temporary camp near the border."

Asami hums. Foolish, indeed.

"So lemme ask you something," she starts, motioning the apple towards him. "Why's'it Lord Hokage's sent _me_ to help _you?_ I mean... Look at you." She moves the apple in a circle at him. "Not to stroke that big ol' ego of yours, but you're not exactly begging for anyone's help."

"You're right." he says frankly. "I don't need your help."

Her brow twitches. "So why're we doing this?"

"Aren't you loyal to your village?"

She falters a moment—his intonation. _Your_ village. Not _our_ village, but _your._

No, it's no mystery why he says it like that; she's ANBU, she has access to the files. They went from SS-rank to just S-rank on Kakashi's orders—maybe even Naruto's stubborn insistence—and Asami's not going to lie, she'd been sickly curious enough to want to get in on this secret.

So, yeah, _her_ village, even when it... isn't, not really.

"Let's not and say we didn't, pal." She flicks her free hand to the side as if sweeping the matter away. "Anyway, you seen this camp?"

He eyes her a moment but clearly decides to ignore it, because he goes on to answer, "I have. Because of the influx in stolen goods, I've concluded that they're recruiting."

"What for, though?"

Sasuke leans away from the map and looks in direction of the camp. "If it's weapons and spare metal, I can only surmise they're gearing up for some sort of attack. The border patrols make it difficult to stay in one place too long and gauge the situation fully."

That's when it clicks.

"You... _do_ need me." Asami realizes, and Sasuke looks at her with one brow raised, like he's never heard anything more preposterous in his life. She narrows her eyes. "You can cloak your presence well enough, sure, but not with that many people roaming around all the damn time. Me, though," She taps beneath one eye, "I got us both covered. Literally."

The reasoning dawns on him too, and his shoulders drop ever so slightly, as if put off by it. Asami smirks.

"Besides, _Uchiha,"_ she continues, saying his last name like it's the whole reason he needs to hide in the first place—and it is, "Kakashi was dumb enough to think me and you could work together. It's not like I don't love proving the guy wrong, but this is serious."

"Don't talk to me like I don't know that." He rolls his eyes, and she mimics it.

Flicking the apple core away and then cleaning her fingers, Asami stands up. "Right, well. We best get moving then. Night's a good cover."

Sasuke hums and rolls up the map. "You already wasted enough of our time as it is."

"Gods, why can't I fucking kill you?"

He snorts, but she puts herself above him for once and leaps down to collect her things. Running her sword through him would be _so_ cathartic.

 _"Anyway..."_ she begins after using eye drops and then slipping on her mask. "We gonna take the river? No footprints to follow, and the marshiness will cover up our scents pretty well. Do the rivers lead up that way, or what?"

Sasuke is already stepping onto the surface of the water.

"Man, you and verbal answers just aren't friends, huh?"

He ignores her once again. This... is going to be a long night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw not only is the girl you love pregnant with someone else's baby and u can never have her, but now u gotta work with the World's Biggest Asshole. thems the breaks kiddo
> 
> Thanks for reading! I think I'll post on a weekly schedule, but I might change my mind. I'm actually almost done with this fic! Maybe! Feel free to leave a comment. :'^)


	3. you're so desperate that you'll talk to a wall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunate partners Asami and Sasuke get this show on the road and there are no less than three (3) homicidal ideations that take place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a heads up! Reed Country is for the Hidden Grass Village, Valley Country is for the Hidden Waterfall Village, and in another chapter, Moss Country is for the Hidden Rain Village. My friends helped me come up with them!

They make it to the border before dawn.

About three miles back, the river trail had branched off into the wrong direction, forcing them to keep low to the ground because trees in the area are sparse; Asami began to match her chakra with the energy of the increasing abundance of fungus they're running into. Their communication has since fallen into hand signs and reading the movement of each other's eyes.

When they come up to the first layer of patrol on the Fire side of the border, Asami vaguely wonders why none of the squads on the Reeds side have done something about the camp. Could the occupying shinobi be from Grass? That would mean Grass is planning something, which can't be good news for anyone.

For the mission's sake, they dodge the Leaf shinobi and Fire Country sentinels. Being caught wouldn't be a big deal since a flash of her dog tags and Sasuke's forehead protector will let them out, but it's a disturbance that the flow of things can't afford right now.

It's when they come up towards the Grass shinobi and Reeds Country sentinels that they'll have trouble.

Both of them are slipped between fungus that tower over them like trees, and Asami makes eye contact with Sasuke.

 _"Long way around?"_ she signs at him.

 _"Waste of time."_ he shoots back.

_"Standard genjutsu?"_

_"Too weak for border shinobi."_

_"Fuck."_ She puts a hand to her mask. _"My chakra reserves are okay for now, but I can't afford wasting them on menial things like this."_

_"Don't you have soldier pills?"_

_"Yes, but in case of emergency."_ Her fingers flip through the signs in annoyance. _"And they taste like shit anyway."_

_"Unprofessional."_

She flips him off.

_"Fine, but you need to get over here."_

She scoots against the trunk of the fungus, disturbing some of the spores down. Sasuke body flickers from his spot to her side.

"Stay still." she murmurs.

After flicking the piece of glove covering her thumb off, she bites into the skin and channels her chakra into the blood that beads. She reaches up and moves Sasuke's stupid hair away from the side that hides his Rinnegan, sliding it over the top of his head. The pad of her thumb presses to the center of his forehead and then deft fingers draw the blood into a seal that reads something like, _Hide._

Still holding his hair back, she pulls a one-handed ram sign. _Seal!_

The blood's color melts from red to dark magenta, matching how her eyes flash, and then seeps into his skin. Sasuke's facial muscles twitch under her touch.

"It feeds off _my_ chakra, so don't fucking use it more than you have to." she hisses, dropping his hair back over the mesmerizing pattern of the Rinnegan. "To release, do it like you would a normal genjutsu, followed by ram. If you don't, I will."

Pulling back, she sighs and then activates her own eyes. The world doesn't melt into pitch black this time; only she and Sasuke melt out of existence.

"They'll still be able to hear noticeable sounds." she warns. "Keep light on your feet."

He looks at her, unimpressed like she's explaining the obvious. She can't help but flip him off again.

Taking one deep breath each, they split around the sides of the fungus and then dart for further cover in the tall grass. Asami has to roll past the steps of a sentinel, nearly banging her head on a surprise rock, but recovers effortlessly to slide right under a watchtower. Paused and curled around the wooden post, she searches for Sasuke. He ends up being a couple meters ahead, and she can only make him out by the glow of her bloodline seal on his forehead. A few of his fingers move over the waves of grass.

_"Clear. Move out."_

A few more towers and rotations of shinobi watchers later, and they successfully end up on the other side of the border. Sasuke releases the seal without her having to ask and she inhales in relief. She's gotten so much better at lending out her chakra to longer and longer distances, but that feeling of her spirit trying to pull away with it still lingers when she does it. The disorientation is small, but a setback nonetheless, and she has to shake her head and deactivate her eyes.

"Ready?" Sasuke asks as soon as she's found herself again.

"Lead the way."

They set off again.

 

The sun has fully risen by the time they pass the direction of the Tenchi Bridge. Both the Tenchi and Kannabi Bridge hang over a steep gorge cut by a rushing river born in Valley Country, and Sasuke leaps from rock point to rock point in a northern turn.

"Is it above ground?" she calls after him. Her voice doesn't echo as much as she thought it would, and the rushing waters below cover it up well enough.

"Half and half." Sasuke responds.

"They got a border patrol too?"

"What do you think?"

Asami's brow twitches. "I hope you slip and fall into the river and _drown."_

That moment chooses a pillar of rocks to shatter under Sasuke's feet. He leaps just in time to connect to the wall next to it, but Asami is _mid-air._ She spouts colorful names at him before shooting wire strings that she _hopes_ wind around his neck. Luck doesn't favor her though, and they connect with wires he slings instead. They both channel their chakra to bind the strings together and Asami uses one foot to push off a wall that wants to split her skull open, the chakra out of her soles blasting a crater there. Momentum and Sasuke's strategic swinging send her flying up into the air and she targets her landing spot on a ledge jutting from the wall.

"And, _safe!"_ she announces, swiping her arms outwards while in a squat. Sasuke just stares. She jerks her head over her shoulder, glaring. "You did that on fucking purpose, huh?"

"I didn't do anything." he responds blithely.

"I'm gonna tell Kakashi you tried to kill me." she sneers.

"Are you twelve?" he can't help but ask.

"That's twelve-and-a-half, asshole!"

He snorts, she smirks, and then they're on their way again.

Some twenty minutes later, Sasuke drops just meters above the water. Asami follows suit and the press against the craggy wall. Ten meters to their left, there's a wooden bridge extruded from the rocks that feeds to an upwards grassy slope.

Asami eyes Sasuke and signs, _"This it?"_

He jerks a short nod and then makes his way under the bridge. She throws a pebble at him and he spins to glare at her.

_"Wouldn't it be easier to look from above?"_

_"Use your eyes."_ he says, so she looks up. The valley ledge is sticking out too far to see anyone.

When she activates her eyes, she sees two flares of chakra standing up there. _Oh,_ she thinks, but then glares back at him.

 _"Use my eyes, obviously."_ Her hand movements are sharp and caustic, and she swipes a palm over her head.

He stares for a moment, and then blinks.

She drops her chin forward derisively, knowing he can probably make out how her eyes hood in boredom at his forgetfulness through the mask holes.

Since the seal had already been painted into his skin, she doesn't need to redo it. Instead, she closes her eyes and focuses on his chakra, even when it's a little farther than she wants it to be. It's when her chakra crests against his that she signs ram with a single hand again, _Seal!_ ringing through her mind.

Exhaling slowly, Asami opens her eyes.

 _"Let's go."_ Sasuke motions, leaping back her way. They scale up the side of the uneven wall.

Right under the ledge, Asami has to pause and wait for the two guards above to switch spots again. When they start walking, they climb sideways and throw their bodies up and over at the same time. The walking has distracted the two guards enough that they don't notice or hear the rush of air that their bodies create when flattening against the ground.

Asami takes the chance to check their persons for any signs of a forehead protector, but there are none.

Sasuke carefully pushes himself up and steps over her, motioning to follow. She narrows her eyes at his back. They easily slip past the cliff guards and follow the ledge that's risen over a basin. A worn pathway leads to a second, bottom section that they would probably find the bridge they hid beside if they followed. It's not a small camp—in fact, how has Grass patrol not found this place yet? The deep valley and shrouding ledges hide it, sure, but not well enough. Probably helping is the fact that all the people are able to utilize their chakra—are they rogues, then?

Positioned for a full view of the hideout (which is really turning out not to be much of one at all), Asami bumps Sasuke's shoulder.

_"They got a leader or something?"_

His eyes scan the area until they land on the far side of the basin, where an arch curves into another part of the valley.

 _"You seen him?"_ she asks. He shakes his head. A smirk pulls her lips. _"Let's pay him a little visit then."_

Just as she's about to leap off, he grabs her shoulder. She immediately shakes him off with a glare.

_"See that wall above the arch?"_

Where the supposed leader's abode is, there's a higher wall; the rock there looks far more textured. She looks back at him, asking, " _What about it?"_

_"The integrity is weak, which is exactly why the leader chose under it. Mere touch could create a landslide."_

_Double-edged sword._ she thinks to herself. _"Smart bastard."_

Sasuke agrees. _"It means we have to cut through camp. The edges of the basin are also guarded. While we could take them down and use clones and transformations to cover the spots, it's not worth the chakra."_

She'd thought of that too, and it's definitely not worth it. As far as she knows, neither of them have the largest reserves, and she doesn't want to rely on soldier pills so early into what could be a week-long affair. They don't know what this group is up to, if their leader is willing to stand down unless they want to cause an international incident, if said group will allow themselves to be dismantled, or if they'll have to take them all down.

_"Alright then, let's get to it."_

Sasuke shakes his head and she frowns.

 _"Aren't you thinking?"_ he asks with narrowed eyes. _"It's day already, and the whole area will be up soon."_

 _"Don't call me stupid."_ she snaps back with her hands. _"Yeah, kinda realize that, but we got a window of opportunity to cut through without being caught. I'm not about to waste time like this."_

Her body moves before Sasuke holds her arm back. Flashing vexation swells her chakra and her seal painted onto his forehead flashes. Right, the seal requires some measure of chakra control on her side, which she can't _do_ if she lets her fucking temper surge.

She counts to ten in her head and Sasuke patiently, _loftily_ waits for her to finish and reign it all in.

 _"You're telling me,"_ she begins to sign slowly, _"that you wanna wait_ all day _to infiltrate."_

He doesn't answer, which is all the response she needs. She wants to groan, because what the hell are they supposed to do for a near-full twelve hours?

 _"So if I kill you..."_ she starts again, and he looks at her impassively. There's no use in finishing; he already knows she's throwing her hundredth empty murder threat his way.

Reluctantly, Asami agrees that they should fall back until nightfall. Luckily, there's a gathering of bushes and fungus that's just tall enough to hide them if they sit in wait. As soon as Sasuke leads her to it and they sit, she releases the seal and stops herself from slumping back.

...Maybe rest to let her chakra replenish won't be so bad. Seriously though, they're just going to sit next to each other in silence for twelve—that's _twelve,_ a whole half a day, _t w e l v e—_ hours? If she doesn't kill him first, she'll end up killing herself.

 

As it turns out, Sasuke had planned on meditating _all day._

Once his stupid, _oh look at me I am a lone wolf in the night_ cape had come off, he'd folded his hands together, closed his eyes, and his chakra smoothed out. It leaves her staring at him in bafflement; not because she's shit at meditation and that if she tried to go twelve hours doing it, she'd lose every sense of her identity, but because he apparently trusts her enough to watch over him while his guard is down.

A few hours into the waiting game, after Asami has exhausted almost every way to murder the last Uchiha, her mind begins to turn to... unsavory thoughts. This was the other reason she hadn't wanted to sit around and do _nothing_ for a prolonged amount of time: Her brain has started turning on her, trying to drown her in what she's left behind.

The word strikes across her mind like lethal lightning.

 

_Pregnant._

 

Every muscle in her body tenses, even when on the outside it looks like she's freely lounging.

The possibility had always been on the table, slamming itself down with fervor and throwing itself in her face after the engagement announcement. She can't remember when it was that she'd separated it from herself, but she hadn't gone back—and then... The wedding brought all of that careful rifting crashing back together.

Before seeking refuge in the Leaf with her mother, Asami's family had been large enough for their sudden absence to burn unlike anything she's ever felt before. Even now, more than a decade later, the emptiness ebbs at her insides. The idea that her family would be huge was never a question—she would be bound to someone she loved and then they would have so many kids that she'd be _sick_ of them.

The fire that had decimated her ancestral lands hadn't deterred that desire, only nurtured it more, yet she hadn't allowed herself to think about it.

Then, when she _finally_ thought she'd found someone, a person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with and raise a family with... the rug had been pulled out from under her. Now, that person she had so badly wanted to share a dream with is sharing it with someone else.

No one but Asami is to blame, and she fucking _knows_ that, but bitterness and anger rear their hideous little heads every so often to tell her she's been _swindled._

Sasuke twitches out of his meditation when she chokes on her emotion in the form of a cough. Thank the gods her mask is still over her face, otherwise he'd be able to tell she was letting herself falter.

"Mind your business, Uchiha." she mutters. He snorts, and then slips back into meditation.

It's only been three and a half hours, but her hands are already starting to itch. How he can just _sit there_ and wait is beyond her—maybe he's used to it or something. She turns to eye his profile.

They've never actually gotten along, nor had reason to; as far as she knows, that was fine for both of them. It's only by virtue of being from the same graduating class and her mother having been a full-time matriarch during Asami's baby years for their briefest stay in the Leaf that they're even remotely linked. Even sharing the trait of a doujutsu means nothing between them, and really only serves to set up some kind of rivalry neither care to acknowledge.

All that said, Sasuke's absence at Naruto and Hinata's wedding had been glaring. For a best friend, he hadn't even bothered with a gift—not that she knew of anyway. She can't help but wonder; was it because he didn't care? Maybe he _had_ gotten one and she just never knew, or...

_I mean..._

What are the odds, right? What a shit commonality that would be for them to have. While Asami's book smarts have always been trash, her people-intuition is usually... pretty spot on. Hell, she'd known about Ino and Sakura before they even knew themselves, and when their relationship got out, she was the first to congratulate them. Even Sai, someone Asami sometimes thinks she could spend the rest of her life with, has always been far more interested in relationships with people of a strictly-platonic nature, rather than romance.

Her feeling out Sasuke is nothing new, not even when they've hardly spent more than a few weeks worth of time together in their whole lives.

Mentioning it would be completely overstepping her boundaries though.

 

(Does he know about the pregnancy?)

 

The sun is high in the sky by the time Sasuke comes out of his meditation of his own volition. Six more hours until sundown.

Asami sits up. "Food?"

He looks at her like he doesn't understand. She tilts her mask until it rests on top of her head though she shouldn't, but she needs him to see her single, judgmental eyebrow raised.

"Don't tell me you haven't eaten real food since you've been here." she questions as a statement.

Again, he stares. She snorts and rolls her eyes, pulling out the scroll she's sealed her food rations into. Lining the inside of the parchment are seven seal circles, each marked by a day of the week, and so she summons forth half of what's stored in _Tuesday._

After laying out a slightly less-than-generous spread of fruits, cheeses, bread, nuts, and dried meats, she looks back at him. He's still staring.

"Your brain broken or something, bud?"

"Why do you have so much?"

"Guess you don't like to eat, huh?" she says, picking up a netted bag of gingko nuts. "I'unno 'bout you, but since my stamina's shit, I like having enough food to keep me going."

"Don't you just waste half of it?"

She eyes him. "You've never seen me eat, have you?"

Obviously not, or he wouldn't be asking such a dumb question.

"Eat." she orders. "Don't be wasteful, the gods will punish you."

He snorts, but doesn't protest. She polishes off her nuts in a clear fifteen minutes. (He eventually sees what she means when she infers that she eats a lot.)

They soon finish, both hungrier than previously thought, and Sasuke takes second watch while she slips her mask back over her face and stretches out to sleep.

It's thirty minutes into a struggle to shut her brain down enough that Sasuke audibly sighs.

"Not a word." she grunts, shifting positions.

Another thirty. She can feel him criticizing silently.

"No offense, Uchiha, but I'm really gonna gouge out your eyes if you don't mind your damn business."

He hums derisively. "Not my fault you can't find inner peace."

"It's a wonder _you_ can."

The stiffening is minute, almost missable, and Asami draws up short.

"Right, that was... Uh. My bad."

The atmosphere turns awkward and neither of them say anything. Asami shifts her body away from Sasuke and doesn't hear him move anymore.

Before another wasted hour is up, Sasuke eventually says, "What is it, then?"

The disbelief is so strong that Asami can't help snorting. _The_ Uchiha Sasuke, offering to hear about _feelings?_ Are they even in the right universe anymore?

"Full offense, but why are you asking? Why should you care? Nosy..."

"Because if you don't rest, you'll jeopardize the mission." he reasons without intonation.

"Honestly? Just sounds like you wanna talk about _feelings."_ she easily deflects.

His lips twitch in amusement.

"What's so funny?"

"The fact that you think I actually care."

He's got her there. Her brain quickly flips through the possible fallout but finds nothing too life-threatening, and she eventually sits up.

"When you're bitching later, remember that you _offered,_ asshole."

"Hn."

Asami takes a deep breath, puts aside the fact that she's about to stupidly bare her heart to someone like _Sasuke,_ and then begins.

"So I guess like, that thing, when you gotta find out news in the worst way possible?" she says. "That happened to me before I left for this mission."

There's no reply, and she doesn't expect one. It's kinda like talking to a wall; a wall with a really punch-able face.

"You..." She bites her lip under the mask for a second before continuing with, "You probably don't know what it's like, but I'm... Ugh. I'm still in love with my married best friend and I deluded myself into thinking shit would be fine if I ignored it, but if I'm basically gutting myself in front of _you,_ you know it's bad." The words all just kind of... tumble out.

Sasuke hadn't been looking at her before, but now he's studying what he can see of her eyes under the mask. She examines him right back, yet doesn't glean much from the flat line of his mouth and the unbothered skin around his eyes and brows. Her earlier inference was looking more wrong by the second.

"Hyuuga Hinata, isn't it?"

She stiffens. She hadn't been expecting him to say anything, much less _call her out._

"What's it to you?" She glares.

His shoulder hardly move in a shrug.

"You have poor taste."

She automatically wants to snatch out her tanto and press it into his neck. "What the fuck's _that_ supposed to mean?"

He stares like his single eye is supposed to give her the answer.

...So how likely would Naruto be to kill her if she just did him in right now? He'd forgive her eventually, right? Maybe Sakura could help bring him around—or, not... Kakashi probably wouldn't care, honestly. Who can blame him?

In seconds, she's got Uchiha Sasuke's entire murder planned out, including where to hide the body, the right excuses to the right people, and what she'll say in consolation afterwards at his funeral.

And then she neatly tucks it all away in a click of her tongue and lays back down, violently suppressing both her seething and her murderous intent lest it radiate across the basin and valley.

"Fuck you, Uchiha." she spits before closing her eyes.

It's her rage that eventually sinks her into sleep, but not before she hears Sasuke murmur something like, _I know what it's like more than you think_ , so softly that she imagines it.

 

_Oh._

 

...Okay...?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw you need to talk about your feelies so bad that you'll even talk to the World's Biggest Asshole
> 
> Thanks for reading! My favorite part is when Asami almost fell to her death :'^)
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment!


	4. you'll have time to be angry later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunate partners Asami and Sasuke work surprisingly well together, and yet, what Sasuke said has been bugging her.

Night drapes the sky, and Asami and Sasuke haven't said a single word to each other since he woke her up. They move silently, collecting their things and ridding the spot of evidence of them being there, and Sasuke exasperatedly seals his cape away into a scroll after her insistence. Asami watches him knot his loose sleeve, but then looks away when he motions his readiness. They creep back towards the basin hideout.

Fires are lit, but only enough to let someone walking through the area see properly. The watchtowers don't reach higher than a few meters above the rock wall, and the night shift is rotating in. Sasuke and Asami's hand signs at each other aren't words, but code word signals.

After Sasuke mentions something about a blind spot in the guard, Asami follows him. They soon drop down a dent in the basin's protective wall and dodge behind a cart surrounded by tall, unruly grass. Six meters on either side of them is stationed a guard, no forehead protector discernible—a militia? Not with those active chakra pathways... They have to be rogues, and likely from the Hidden Grass.

Sasuke jostles her.

_"Tell me about their chakra."_

Had he always known she was a sensor? Discarding the thought, she closes her eyes and unfurls her senses over the entire basin; without opening them, she begins to sign back at him.

_"Thought they were all from the Grass, but there are a few conflicting, regional traits. It's not only Grass, for sure... Grass, Rain, and... Waterfall, maybe?"_

When her eyes open, her senses snap uncomfortably back to herself; she's down a third of her reserves because of her Hidden Presence seal on Sasuke in combination with the chakra-readings.

 _"Hidden Villages that wanted a bigger voice among the Elemental Nations."_ Sasuke notes, and Asami blinks.

_"So... It really is a rebellion."_

_"It may be heading that way. Move out to the leader's tent. Don't be seen."_

_Obviously._ she thinks to herself.

They go their separate ways, and even if Asami can still feel Sasuke's sharp chakra against her own, she's glad to be physically rid of him for even a few minutes. His words have been popping into her mind every so often since they started sneaking around, unwelcome. Did she really hear him right? She could've been just tired... But if not, it proves her intuition right once again.

The only problem is, if they have... _that_ in common, how is someone like _him_ dealing with it?

"Did you hear that?" asks one of the guards.

Asami presses herself up against the base of a wooden post surrounded by bushes.

 _Focus, stupid._ she berates herself.

Adjusting for a safer position several meters away and snug between the undulating wall of a tent and a wooden barrel, Asami pokes her head up and tries to gauge Sasuke's location. So many abodes are set up and disrupt her line of physical sight, and she doesn't want to use her eyes more than she has to at this point, so instead, she focuses on getting from point A to point B. Halfway there.

About three quarters of the way to the leader's tent, someone turns a corner too fast. Nerves shooting every which way, Asami automatically grabs their ankles and drags them down, jerking her thumb piece open, snapping into the finger, and then painting her Hidden Presence seal on their forehead with daunting speed.

_Seal!_

The man—a shinobi, Asami can feel his chakra surging in a panic—opens his mouth to sound the alert, but she slaps one hand over it and presses down the blade of her drawn tanto onto his neck.

"Go to sleep for a lil while, will ya?"

She triggers a genjutsu that puts him right to sleep. Unfortunately, she can't release her seal because there's nowhere to hide the body; on top of Sasuke's seal, she's going to need a soldier pill soon.

Approximately one eternity later, Asami makes it to the leader's tent and sidles up around the back, having to be especially careful of how her movement disrupted the grass because of the two guards stationed at the front. Sasuke hasn't shown yet, but he's near; she's tempted to feel him out or use her eyes, but that fucker's not worth the risk right now.

Before her deep breath has finished, a rush of air alerts her to Sasuke's arrival.

 _"Took you long enough."_ she signs, glancing around to ensure they can stand.

He grunts at her, and then asks, _"Are they inside?"_

_Of course he wants me to look._

Her eyes brighten, glaze over, and she gazes into the tent. There are two signatures inside, side by side.

_"Two, looks like they're looking over something, don't know."_

_"Now we can pay them a 'little visit'."_

A smirk twitches at Sasuke's lips and Asami wants to smack it right off his face. He's about to move when she grabs his arm.

_"A plan?"_

He blinks at her, and then says, _"Follow my lead."_

As he's about to move again, she grabs his arm, harder this time. He jerks it away, glaring.

_"Hell no am I just 'following your lead'. You better tell me what the fuck we're doing or else."_

His eyes narrow even more. _"Or else what? What could you possibly threaten me with?"_

It's her turn to smirk. _"I'm gonna tell everyone that Uchiha Sasuke likes to talk about_ feelings."

To most, his face remains seemingly impassive, but Asami is not most—the minute furrow of his brows, the slight tug at the corners of his lips, the smallest tightening of his jaw—

_Got 'em._

He sighs.

Eventually, he signs, _"The Sharingan will allow me to get any and all information I need. There are two people, so I need you to incapacitate one while we figure out which one the leader is. When I interrogate them, you will hold down the other one."_

She's about to protest that she will interrogate the other while he's busy, but that would involve making noise, which the guards _right outside the tent flap_ would definitely hear. Sasuke, on the other hand, can freely speak inside the enemy's head.

She relents with a sigh and a short nod.

Before anymore time can be wasted, they quickly debate how to best enter the tent without being caught, and decide that entering from the far right corner will be fine since the inhabitants are on the left side. Sasuke squats and cautiously begins to uproot the pins nailing the cloth into the ground. Surely if not for the wind, they would've been caught by now, but the ruffling of the tent walls is enough to cover the soft pulling sounds of metal leaving the ground.

When he's pulled enough of the nails out for her to slip through, he scoots to the side and then motions for her to move when she's ready. She rolls out her shoulders and torso and then presses her body into the grass. Holding the cloth down so it doesn't flap _too_ freely, she peeks underneath and into the tent. Like she'd seen with her eyes, there are two people—men—standing over a table, looking at what is probably a map of the area. Fortunately, their backs are to the corner like she'd hoped, leaving her a _small_ margin for motion mistakes.

With a thumbs up to Sasuke, she moves head-first under the cloth. There's another table in the corner where they're sneaking in, which plays even more to their efforts, and she says as much with the one hand still outside the tent to Sasuke. On the assumption that he'd understood, she drags her arm back in and slowly, _slowly_ body crawls. This is where being flexible and slender comes in handy—she can make herself as small as she needs if it's an absolute necessity.

Once she's completely curled under the table, she sticks one hand back out to motion for Sasuke. Luckily, she'd insisted that he seal his stupid cloak away so that it wouldn't be billowing in the wind or get in his way. Why he's so attached to that thing, she'll never know.

She watches as his head pops in and has too damn hard a time not laughing at his strewn hair disrupted by the wind and the cloth, and how silly his head is only popping in. He glares, but continues to smoothly navigate his way inside, eerily close to a snake.

 _Guess you pick up a thing or two when you live with one for so long._ she thinks idly, though that was a very long time ago, and not worth lingering on for anyone. She helps hold the cloth down while he continues slithering inside.

It's a tight fit, the way they have to press into each other's sides under the table, but luckily, she can make herself small enough that it works out.

 _"You gotta be on the ball."_ she signs to him.

He just looks at her, unimpressed, and she's tempted to bowl him into the tent wall and send their whole cover sprawling.

 _"Go when you're ready."_ he replies, and then adjusts his knotted sleeve.

Glancing back at the two men, Asami realizes she hasn't been paying any attention to what they've been saying this entire time. Plan discussion, clearly, but for what? Is it really a rebellion? It's not like she'd be surprised if it were, but a rebellion in such a time of peace, where the Five Great Elemental Nations are virtually hand-in-hand? That's a suicide mission if she's ever heard one.

Deeply breathing, Asami adjusts; fingers braced on the floor, one knee bent in front of the other, muscles tightly coiled—she springs.

The big one, she goes for first. Her body turns sideways in the air and her arms wrap around his neck, and when she swings her legs around after kicking off the table, they wrap around the man's face next to him. In the lightning-quick movements, she's got both of them gagged and muffled with an odd body contortion.

Their struggle is immediate and their combined strength could probably shake her off in seconds, but that's all Sasuke needs before he's dashing from the hiding spot. Her thighs are stronger than her arms, so she smacks the bigger of the two men—where her arms are wrapped around his face—as signal that Sasuke should throw him in a genjutsu first; she'll be able to muzzle the second man much easier.

Sasuke grabs the man by the shoulders, and before a struggle can even take place or tip off the guards outside the door, his bloody eyes slump the man right over. Both of them go still.

Meanwhile, Asami's thighs are wrapped snugly around the second man, his face quaintly stuffed between her legs. She has to take special care to make sure he doesn't suffocate there and quickly thinks of a way to silence him without having to stay in the core-straining position for however-the-hell-long Sasuke is working.

Voice low and pleasant in a way that's just this side of threatening, she murmurs, "I'm going to move now. If you make a single noise, I'm going to snap your neck, okay? You'll regret any funny business, I promise."

His eyes, brimming with terror because he can only see the reddish-purple glow of her eyes through the mask, widen even more. He nods quickly and stiffly.

Carefully, Asami dismounts. She flushes one palm against the man's trembling mouth and maintains eye contact that practically intimidates him into silence. She can already tell that he's taller, so instead of getting to the ground, she squats on the table, now able to keep eye-level with him.

"Let's bind you up, yeah?"

His mouth and eyes are the first to go. Not breaking a sweat, she sweeps him to the ground, grateful that the winds outside are covering up what noises manage to slip by her careful ministrations, and tied up next are his wrists and legs, bound at the forearms, hands facing away from each other so he won't be able to mold chakra or make hand signs.

He squirms and wriggles, obviously in pain, but she makes it a point to turn him on his stomach, sit on his back, and then grab the map from the table.

Waiting for Sasuke to finish with the bigger man—who looks close to catatonic at this point—her eyes sweep over the map, committing it to memory. There are Xs and lines everywhere, routes that take back doors into other countries—namely Fire and Valleys in order to access Rice Fields.

Planning to infiltrate Fire Country when the patrols are so staunch is _ballsy_ —what admirable spunk, honestly—but it's just plain _stupid._ On the other hand, why would they be wanting to go to Rice Fields? The Hidden Sound had been reformed as an _actual_ shinobi village instead of a cover for crimes against humanity (a joint effort by, shockingly enough, Cloud and Leaf, with former experiments of Orochimaru being let take the lead). That said, they were still weak and getting off their feet, and being reinstated as a proper village by others would have them be grateful and unlikely to lend their help to anything that might shake their new foundation.

Admirable efforts, yes, but still fucking stupid nonetheless.

She pulls out a storage scroll, smoothly unfurls it, draws a new, small section, and then after curling up the map, she seals it away to return it to the Leaf. Whenever _that_ will be.

Just as the small puff of smoke dissipates, the second man practically flops on Sasuke. His chakra has almost completely stopped humming; the sign of an unconscious man—and he's probably _actually_ catatonic from this point in his life on.

 _"What'd you get out of him?"_ she signs casually.

_"Tell you after. Let me have the second one."_

She shrugs and then gets off her human throne, who inhales with the pressure gone. Mercilessly, she wrenches him around and into a sitting position, and Sasuke takes over one more time. She has to look away so that she won't be snatched into the Sharingan's nearly impenetrable genjutsu either.

When she stands to make neat of the first body, the world sways and she nearly knocks into the table. Immediate instinct has her dispelling Hidden Presence on both her and Sasuke, but remembering not to forget the unconscious body she'd hid earlier nor how their own chakra signatures are masked.

She wants to remove her mask and rub her face, but ANBU conditioning has her brain screaming at her at the thought of it. Instead, she pulls a small, tied cloth from her supplies pouch, undoes the twine knot, and inside are several small, greenish pellets.

Unlike standard black soldier pills, the effect of these are less drastic; they don't run the user dry after a certain amount of time and are meant more as a booster in a tighter spot than a full system takeover than ends in shutdown—Sakura and her medical research team had been developing them ever since the Great War ended because of how many casualties the original pill formula caused.

Her face twists sourly at the absolute bitterness powdering across her tongue after she bites into it. Saliva immediately rushes forth from the back corners of her mouth and she nearly gags— _Gods, they really do taste like shit._

Moving around Sasuke to the first body, she sits to let her energy recover and pat the body down for anything useful on his person. Nothing good turns up, and she kills more time by searching the tent for other tactical maps and weapons to add to a collection she rarely touches. Maybe Tenten will like it if she finds something interesting.

Seconds after she finishes sealing away the last lifted good, Sasuke exhales out of his genjutsu and the second man collapses to the ground. Right then, the tent door flaps open.

"Sir, there's been suspicious activity outside the perime—"

The shinobi's voice cuts off with a yelp. Asami shoots a kunai-speared thick wire and navigates the rig around his neck. Yanking, his entire body flies forward and she rounds in her elbow for solid contact with the center of his face. It effectively knocks him out cold. Pull on the wire slackened, Asami jerks it back and it wraps neatly around her hand until the kunai slaps into her palm. She turns to Sasuke.

"So?"

When he doesn't answer immediately, Asami's brows fall and her lids droop in spurn. What's with his face? It looks like a cross between murderous intent and pity, and it twists her stomach a little.

"Don't tell me you scrambled their brains."

"I did not." he responds, expression suddenly neutral. "They've agreed to stand down pending a meeting with the Great Nations Council."

Her eyebrows go right back up and she blinks. Mouth pulling down at the corners, an amazed, "Wow." comes out of her mouth. "Didn't know you had the whole 'peace' gig in you."

"I wouldn't be a very good friend if I didn't." he retorts, but by the way his lips immediately press together on the inside, it slipped out. Asami decides not to push it, but her baffled curiosity pokes his head back into her mind.

_File that away for later._

She rolls out both of her shoulders individually and then drops her hands to her hips. "So... That means we gotta untie these people?" she asks. "You mean I gotta _apologize_ to that dude I just strangled?"

"Yes."

"Dammit, Uchiha." she sighs exasperatedly. "You couldn'a told me that shit _before_ I almost broke the guy's windpipe?"

"It was a precaution."

"It was a damn waste of time apparently!"

"Just untie them, Matsumoto."

Asami flips him off, but ultimately goes to work beside him in undoing the ropes. How the hell were they going to wake the guy she choked into unconsciousness? He'll just have to wake up naturally. If they go fast enough, she might not even have to apologize.

They situate the bodies into comfortable positions; one on the single bed in the tent, and the other two on mats next to it. Asami considers what she can do to help the wounds that will appear on them later, but her abilities in medical ninjutsu is next to _trash_ and she only knows enough to heal small cuts and surface bruising. Oh well. They'll find it in their hearts to forgive her.

"Now what? We gonna wait around for them to come 'round, or...?"

"No." Sasuke answers. "I explained that you and I needed to return to Fire Country and let the border patrol know they were going to pass through. We'll meet them at a defined location near the border and then escort them back to the Leaf."

"A 'defined location'?"

Sasuke looks owlishly at her for a moment. Her eyebrows drop again.

"You didn't pick a place, huh?"

He coughs into a fist, and is that self-consciousness? Right before her very eyes? _Oh my gods, he's actually so dumb—_

She sighs and crosses her arms. "Consider the fact that we need some measure of discreetness, and we can't just pick any location." She scans a layout of northwest Fire Country in her mind—and then a pair of beady black eyes flash through her mind. "Oh."

Sasuke raises an eyebrow.

She grins under her mask, and he can hear it in her voice. "I know just the place."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no tfw today more like tfw ur so busy u don't have time to think about your problems, thank god
> 
> I hope that this was mission-like enough. These kinds of things are fun to write, but I never know if I do that good of a job. Feel free to let me know in the comments, I'd really like it!


	5. a broken heart is the worst thing to have in common, so now you have to kill each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sasuke's omissions push Asami to the edge, and they find out they have a lot more in common than they think—namely the fact that they're both very angry and hurt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO GOOD NEWS! I finally have art of Asami to share with everyone! This is her usual [age 20](https://i.imgur.com/m6TaXaj.png) appearance and this is her [ANBU uniform, along with her mask](https://i.imgur.com/cun1ZhC.png)!

For some gods-forsaken reason, Sasuke is waiting until they're as far away from the rebellion encampment as possible to start letting her in on the details of his interrogation.

They had ended up leaving a neutral-toned message behind for the leader and his subordinates to read when they regained consciousness, very firm on their position and that they _would_ be reporting to their Hokage soon. Border patrol had been easy enough to handle; a show of Asami's dog tags, her ANBU oath tattoo, and Sasuke's (struck) forehead protector let them land safely and explain the situation with as little detail as necessary.

Regardless, the uneasy reign of peace keeps patrols on their toes; they prepared for a surprise attack anyway. While Asami doesn't think this small army is stupid enough to make moves when they're now a known element, cornered animals can become dangerous. She knows that better than most.

They're about fifty-six miles from the encampment when the effects of the soldier pill Asami took before start to wear off. Sasuke looks like he could use a break too, having actually broken a sweat with his genjutsu interrogation. They agree to stop close to a wide clearing circled by trees growing increasingly taller; distinct evidence of Fire Country landscape.

Sasuke takes this time to summon one of his hawks and begin writing a message to the village, to Kakashi. Asami watches from a high branch, having lifted her mask off the bottom part of her face to enjoy the early morning breeze. She's sometimes heard of his reports arriving at Naruto's doorstep rather than Kakashi's, which is either a weird mistake on the delivery hawk's part, of some quirk of Sasuke's since he basically resents every other person living in the village.

She can't help but call down, "Make sure it gets to the right person, Uchiha."

He doesn't dignify her with a glance and instead sits himself against her tree's trunk, one leg stretched in front of him and the other knee pulled to his chest where his arm rests over it.

She huffs.

Air rushes his hair when she body flickers down, but he doesn't bat an eyelash.

"Alright," she starts, plopping down next to him, "it's 'bout time you lemme in on the interrogation."

He eyes her blithely and she just can't understand why he's being so... _withholding_ about this. Her mask is still half over her face, so it's not like a glare can goad him into it.

"What the hell's your problem? I'm your _partner_ on this, whether you like it or not." she sneers. "So fess up. What'd you find out?"

He sighs. They're not best buds who know everything about each other, but her tenacity is practically infamous; she doesn't give in on this kind of thing and that's something he should _know_ (and likely detests in her, but look how many fucks she doesn't give).

"They still believe in the imbalance of power between the Five Elemental Nations and the rest of the continent." he begins to slowly explain. "Grass was offered a place among the alliance, and while the majority agreed, a small percent quickly defected. Because the alliance was spearheaded by the Leaf due in large part to Naruto, they are under the impression that the Leaf has ulterior motives with control stretching over the rest of Fire Country."

Asami listens raptly, though she's never been one for politics or political maneuvering. That was always more of Norikuma's—her former genin teammate—area of expertise, the fast-talking type with ambition to rise in the ranks.

"The defectors do not trust the Leaf." He says it in an understanding way, and Asami can also feel the sentiments deep in her gut. "Reeds is a small nation in comparison, and they're afraid that by extending their hand for alliance, they'll be trading their freedom and identity for protection and annexation."

 _Right._ Asami thinks, because Reeds Country is still deeply scarred by the Second and Third Shinobi Wars. Even Kannabi Bridge has never been fully repaired after all these decades. She can't imagine what most of the major infrastructure is like, or how well it is or isn't recovering.

"Obviously... They weren't the only ones. They gathered defected shinobi from both the Hidden Rain and the Hidden Waterfall, and they were working to extend their reach towards the Hidden Sound." Sasuke is amused by that last part.

No further explanation follows up and she eyes him suspiciously. Omissions are in the subtle shift of the muscles around his jaw and the downcast of his eyes that don't want to move.

"What else?" she asks.

Being called out makes the dubious movements of his face more obvious, but he's not trying to hide it anymore.

"What. Else?" she presses, voice hard. "And if you say it's none of my business, I'm literally gonna throttle you into the next fuckin' dimension. I'm not some dumb idiot who goes lettin' info slide under my nose. What aren't you telling me, Uchiha?"

He glares at her, clearly resentful for being put on the spot.

"...When," he starts slowly, almost hesitantly, "they had their numbers, they were planning to infiltrate the Leaf. They were going to kidnap Naruto. And they were going to kill him as proclamation of their rebellion."

She scoffs. "So you really _did_ scramble their brains."

"I didn't." Sasuke nearly snaps. "And they would've deserved it if I had."

She snorts, not really disagreeing with him, but doesn't say anything. They both know he's exposed himself a little—if there's anything Asami knows and has observed, it's that Uchiha Sasuke doesn't like that which is 'his' disturbed. Ironically enough, Naruto happens to be among what he claims.

 

**_Pregnant._ **

 

The word slices through her mind like a white-hot knife.

 _Oh fuck._ Her stomach drops. _He doesn't know._

How can he? The only other person they might've told is Kakashi—Asami is pretty much the only one privy right now. Will Naruto tell Sasuke? Does Naruto _know?_ That guy's so dense that it _hurts,_ but you'd think not showing up to your _best friend's wedding_ might signify that something's wrong there.

"What?"

Sasuke notices that Asami's staring and she quickly looks away, her insides churning. _It's not my place. I shouldn't interfere._

_Fuck._

"How long you planning on staying when we get back?" she asks instead, because she just can't help herself.

Suspicion gleams in his eyes, but she doesn't bother playing it off. "That's none of your business." he responds.

"You should go see Naruto." she says plainly. "When's the last time you stopped by to see him?" She scoffs again. "Some best friend you are, huh?"

The gaze he levels her with is dark, and for a moment, she thinks he's about to get up and leave.

"It's none of your business." he says again, more firmly, more heavily, like he's trying to intimidate her into dropping it. She pops a vein.

"So, what, you're just gonna avoid him for the rest of your life? You think a missing half of a friendship holds it up?"

"My missions outside the village have nothing to do with this."

Her snort is callous, borderline-vicious. "They've got nothing to do with it, yet he's probably been waiting for you. You're being a huge ass, y'know?"

This is the point where Sasuke moves to get up, not keen on having this conversation with someone he doesn't even _like._ Asami gets up too, though, and stands right in his way.

"You _owe_ this to him, asshole!" she scorns, a sudden anger— _torment_ —rising. "You're just gonna keep running away because of a couple _ghosts?"_

Sasuke's glare is ominous, heavy, and fierce, and his chakra flares around them in the attempt to threaten Asami in silence. Shivers titter down her spine, but these words have been pushing behind her teeth for two days now, and she's not about to _stop._

"You're overstepping your boundaries, Matsumoto." he says lowly, voice coming from deep inside his chest like a restrained roar.

"Apparently someone's gotta!" she shoots back. "Everyone treats you like untouchable glass just so you'll stay in line, and you _let_ them because you'd rather _run away_ than face what you hate!" Her chakra flares too in an attempt to match his and she steps forward to get in his personal space. "Forget the fucking village for once, what about Naruto? Is his friendship _that_ easy for you to toss that you don't even show up to his wedding?!"

Sasuke knows whatever move he makes next is pivotal in the area's survival—if he tries to push Asami away, she'll shove right back; if he walks away, she'll scream after him; if he says nothing, she'll keep shouting in his face and down his throat.

He breathes evenly through his nostrils. His eyes harden. "What about you?" he asks, lethally calm. "You say _I'm_ running away, but isn't that you instead?"

Taken aback a literal step, Asami inaudibly gasps. Then, she jabs her finger at him. "That's got _nothing_ to do with this!"

_A lie._

"Doesn't it, though?" He nearly cuts her off. "I remain outside the walls for the sake of the village, but you took this mission only to escape the fact that someone took something from you and there's nothing you can do about it."

Asami growls, and she can't stop herself—the katana comes out and the clashing of metal zings, electricity and fire crackling in the atmosphere.

"At least _I'll_ be fucking _going back_ to face that shit!" she hisses. "You won't even stick around to find out that he's having a _baby!"_

Sasuke breaks her guard and she flies back, bracing one hand against the ground as her feet slide to a stop.

 

_Oh._

 

 

_Fuck._

 

Deadly silence drapes the air. Asami gapes because she _can't believe that just slipped out of her mouth and oh gods Sasuke knows now and oh gods—_

"...A baby?"

His voice cuts in, zipping through Asami's gut. The way he says the word is strange, like it's foreign and he doesn't understand it, and that startled confusion is something she recognizes right away—because she'd had the same reaction just days ago.

Asami's fucked up, _big time._

She straightens out. Thickening ozone that radiates from both of them begins to tingle at her skin, stronger on Sasuke's side. Provoking this is _not_ a good idea, but she's had monsters pent up for too long, clawing at her rib cage, avaricious for freedom. When is she going to get another chance like this?

"Yeah, a _baby."_ she spits, because honestly? It disgusts her. She's revolted at the thought that they— _did that._ "Which you'd fuckin' _know_ if you bothered to show up every now and then."

Sasuke's grip on the hilt of his sword tightens so much that it echos throughout the clearing.

"I see what you're doing." he denounces coldly. His Sharingan isn't activated yet, but even from where she stands, Asami can see the flickers of wine rolling over the dark irises.

"Yeah?" she sneers. "You gonna _do_ something about it?"

Her answer is how Sasuke disappears before her eyes. Chakra snaps behind her and she whips around just in time for their swords to _clang!_ The force shoves them back a couple meters. Asami spins out of the gridlock, kicking her leg high and aiming for his head. Sasuke's sword _thwaks_ into the ground and he grips her ankle and swings. She clutches his wrist, brings the rest of her body around, and then wraps her other leg around his neck like she had to that shinobi before. Her katana follows his into the ground and she knocks his head _hard._

The stun is momentary because a flaming purple arm manifests as he bends back. It pries her legs open and she falls onto her back. A blade sings through the air and she launches herself with her arms into flipping backwards.

When landing in a squat, she gets a look at the half-manifestation of Susano'o caged around Sasuke.

 _Fuck,_ she thinks, because that's no good news for her. It's a godlike power that's the nightmares of even the most seasoned shinobi, and she's no exception. Her only consolation is how much it _drains_ Sasuke—a tactic she could use is giving him the runaround; she's always been good at avoiding enemies, but not so much waiting them out.

"Are you done playing this game?" Sasuke asks from inside the ultimate defense, voice heavy and stuck between flatness and agitation.

"Not on your life, Uchiha." she snaps with a vicious grin. "'Sides, even if I can't kill you, I need _something_ to beat up. You're next to immortal, yeah? Lemme take it out on you."

Instead of the ram seal used to trigger Hidden Presence, Asami signs with ram followed by monkey. _Release!_

Sasuke shouts at the sudden pain her seal shocks through his brain, stumbling back inside Susano'o. She takes the chance to trigger Hidden Presence on herself and disappears completely from Sasuke's sight. She breathes out slowly, steadily, quiet as she can, and then reaches back into her pouch for another pill. Challenging him in this tired state wasn't the brightest idea, especially being outmatched by miles, but it's not like _he's_ in top form either. She's got a few tricks up her sleeve that might save the day.

Right now, the biggest obstacle is Susano'o—the thing's practically impenetrable and she's not about to wait that shit out.

"And you were telling me that I was running and hiding?" Sasuke taunts.

The only thing stopping her from rising to the bait is that any vocal noise from her will immediately dispel her genjutsu.

Wind rustles the trees and she uses the noise as cover to leap into the branches.

_Wind Style: Land-Bound Typhoon!_

Violent gusts whip through the clearing. Branches sway, turning deadly, but the large tree trunks they belong to sit sturdy in the ground. Bushes and undergrowth sling around as distraction.

_Fire Style: Ignite!_

The fire that Asami spews from her mouth swirls into the gales and explodes near the ground. Susano'o rounds its arm and disperses the storm in almost an instant, but not before she finds sanctuary in other tree. The one she was in before crashes over right after.

Spawning a shadow clone, she sends it to the other side of the clearing and then has it talk for her.

"This is basically cheating, y'know!" it says, and the genjutsu seal dispels on it.

"Why did you start a fight you knew you couldn't finish?" Sasuke jabs.

"Oh, I didn't say I couldn't _finish_ it, asshole. I'm just saying you're hiding behind that shield like a _bitch._ Why don't you come on out and fight me like a _real_ shinobi?"

It doesn't do the trick of course, and another tree comes crashing down.

Before Asami makes another impulsive move, a thought pops into her head.

_Half Susano'o. Not full. Half._

She grins. She lands on the ground, runs her hands through seals, and then slams them down.

_Earth Style: Fissure!_

The earth fractures from where her hands are pressed down to where Sasuke stands and Susano'o shatters instantly.

_"Lightning Style: Split the Earth!"_

The ground crackles and through the rifts the Earth jutsu caused, lighting darts forth and ends up nabbing her leg. She runs her hands through more signs.

_Wind Style: Insulate!_

Wind whirls thick around the lightning and staves it off of her, but before she has a chance to breath, Sasuke's making his next move.

_"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"_

The cage of wind bursts in front of her and she has to shield herself with her arms. Sasuke breaks through the fire and lands a kick right in the middle of her gut. She slams into a tree, deer mask flying off her face to shatter into another trunk. He lands in front of her, but she yanks out her tanto, gasping, and swipes at his ankle, cutting through the shoe and into the skin. He leaps back and she pushes up, spitting out blood and rushing him.

His sword is in-hand again and they strike together one more time.

"Not giving up?" he pants.

"Fuck that." she growls, garnet eyes flashing.

The strength of Sasuke's single arm is just enough to match the strength of both of Asami's. Sparks rain from their lock of blades as they drive against each other, red glaring at magenta. Purple glints from the corner of her eye and she swiftly retreats. Susano'o's arm extends from under Sasuke's cloak, where it undoes the button and the cloth flies off.

She snorts. "What, you up for losin' another arm?"

He smirks derisively. "If you can get that close."

And they go at each other. Metal clings through the air, followed by swipes of limbs and grunts of pain. They're matched evenly for speed and swordplay, but the advantage is still on Sasuke's side because of his added strength and the sheer fact that he's _Uchiha Fucking Sasuke_. Asami's Karigan is active to its first level only and she has to rely on its predictive abilities to keep up so that he won't surprise her.

She does try to get to his arm though—Susano'o is eating at the bandages that wrap Sasuke's stump, and if it eats enough, the skin will become raw, and a weak spot.

Their bodies fly and crash together throughout the clearing, far too fast for the normal human eye to follow. Neither of them keep count of how many hits or slashes they land, the only indication that any happened being the bleeding cuts along their bodies. Because both of them know better, neither makes eye contact lest they be caught in a genjutsu that may cost them.

 

It's aggressive and fast, emotions pouring out and destroying the scenery around them. Animals have long since fled in the wake of their roaring fires, cutting winds, shattering earths, and deadly lighting. They snap their wrath at each other, sling their broken insides at each other, and even though Asami is really the only one letting it show, Sasuke's chakra has become cloying and sinister, stifling the air around them.

"Bet you regret staying gone so long, huh?" Asami taunts.

"You're one to talk." Sasuke says coolly. They land on opposite sides of the destroyed clearing. "Who was the one there the entire time? Years of opportunities, gone—if you're calling _me_ a coward, then I hope you have an even more radical name for yourself."

She bares her teeth and glares, but remembers to stay away from eye contact.

"How are you gonna talk like you didn't have windows of opportunities too!" she growls, pointing her tanto at him. "Everyone could see it but you, Uchiha! You _wasted_ it. You wasted _him!"_

Two shuriken fly at her. She leaps to the side, but as soon as she lands—

_"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"_

The size of a tailed beast's head, a humongous, raging ball of fire races at her. The temperature rises, she clicks her tongue, and with no other options, she runs at it. Just _centimeters_ from collision, she slides to her knees, skidding open her mission pants on the broken ground, and throws her hands through seals.

_Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!_

She slams joined fists into her stomach and a dense sphere of wind spews out. The fireball bursts into flickers and flares raining down, threatening to consume the clearing. It's cover enough for her to activate Hidden Presence again—though it'll be more susceptible to breaking because it already was once before—and then charges at Sasuke, dodging the raining flames.

Sasuke's hair whips out of his face and the Rinnegan is revealed, quickly discovering her presence. It doesn't matter though, because even when he dodges, a shadow clone appears out of nowhere, grabbing his collar. Susano'o's arm destroys it in a matter of seconds, but Asami's seal breaks on herself and their heads bash together.

They collapse to the ground. Disoriented, she blindly pats around for the hilt of her tanto. Once her hand miraculously clutches around the crystal-encrusted hilt, she whirls on Sasuke for their blades to meet once more. Sasuke breaks the lock and bears down on her shoulder. She screams out and twists, her blade slicing deep through his side. One more clash, and the swords fly away.

Feeling in her left arm is quickly fading—the shoulder Sasuke slashed at—and Sasuke uses what's left of Susano'o to hold close the gash in his side. She rolls, topples on top of him, and then smashes her fist into the side of his head. At the same time, he brings up his real arm to strike the heel of his hand at her chin, snapping her head back. From behind, his knee barrels into the back of her head and the world rattles and rings.

Just as he's reaching for her collar to make eye contact and trap her in a genjutsu that would mean game set, she desperately reaches for the blood spilling out of her shoulder wound and after coating her hand, throws it in his eyes. He shouts, falling back. The world still rings and darkens increasingly, but Asami bites into her fist, teeth ripping the clawed glove and shooting awareness through her like an adrenaline injection.

Only Sasuke's Sharingan eye is open, swollen with the sting of blood and blinking to rid of it. Asami coats her hand in more blood and leaps at him, smearing it over the bangs that cover his Rinnegan and pasting them to his face. His leg comes up to belt into her side and she flies, barely tossing her weight enough to flip with her good arm and skids on her butt backwards.

He darts at her and she brings her hand to the one that can barely move, flipping through more seals.

_Earth Style: Mud Fist Jutsu!_

Her hand plows into the ground to draw on the softest parts of the earth. Sasuke materializes with a raised fist and it strikes with her mud-coated one. As soon as her fingers grace his inside, she clutches and her nails dig in. He glares menacingly, contorts their wrists until he's the one with the dominant hold, and she realizes—

Their heads hurl together. The jail of mud slops to the ground and they both crumple.

 

_"Fuck."_

 

She spits blood—it's leaving her body at an alarming rate.

"You and your... bright ideas." Sasuke coughs. By the sound of his voice, the fight is over. Good; she can't feel her fucking limbs anymore anyways. It's like someone _stole_ her bones and replaced them with rotten _jelly._

The area is in ruins: burnt grass, patches still on fire, earth caved in, toppled trees. The small fires are almost the only lightning—sun had set sometime during the battle, only its last rays clinging to the sky.

_That's not good._

"Going to... have to burn our bodies... at this rate." Sasuke says, far too casually.

"Can't." Asami coughs. "Diplomacy is at s-stake."

"Should've... thought of that before... you picked a fight... you couldn't finish..."

"Fuckin' finished, d-didn't I?"

"You're about to... die."

"You t-too, dumb fuck..."

Sasuke snorts. Susano'o's arm snaps out of existence.

"Guess it serves... me right."

 

He sounds so... _tired._

 

Chilling awareness soaks Asami to the bone. Her eyes widen and she looks over at him. He's staring at the sky, doujutsu deactivated, and _Oh no, oh fuck, oh gods, if we stay here we really will die fuck oh fuck fuck FUCK—_

"Shut up." she snaps, and then reaches up a shaky arm to pull blood from her deep shoulder wound. Her palm limply falls the ground.

Following the smell of the forest after a storm and a haunting hum, the silhouette of a huge creature appears from a cloud of smoke.

_"A-Akihiko."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw the thing u have in common is that you're both sad and angry gays who can't have what they want and there's no one to blame but yourselves.
> 
> I'd _really_ like feedback on this chapter in particular because of the combat scene, so if you would be so kind as to drop me a comment of what you thought, please do! I like it a lot and am very happy with it, but it's good to have other people's perspectives. Otherwise, i hope you enjoyed reading! Stay tuned to find out whether or not Asami and Sasuke die!


	6. from bleeding out to breaking down, that's what they call multi-talented

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summons are mouthy, and Asami just doesn't want Sasuke to die because it means that the former Team Seven will make sure _she_ dies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter introduces my friend's OC, Miume! They were kind enough to let me use her in this story, so I hope I've done them a lot of justice. If you're curious about Miume's appearance, please [look here!](https://nosealsforyou.tumblr.com/post/171953892076) My friend is an amazing character maker and artist, so look around their blog some more! :^)

Eyes that glow an eerie white in the night stare down at the mess of two bodies among the destruction.

"Asami," Akihiko says slowly. His voice is heavy and wary, and she doesn't have to see him with clear vision to know—he is _not_ happy. "What is this?"

"Yeah, I'd l-love to expla—" She coughs violently, wracking pain through her body. "B-But as you can see—Hiko-chan, we're kinda... d-dying."

"...What do you suppose I should do about it?" he asks evenly.

"Uh, your j- _job,_ maybe?"

"That explains very little."

Asami sighs a breath that is half-gargled. "We're about t-twelve miles out from Sunotori. I n-need you to take... us there—" More coughing cuts her off. "Now'd be n-nice."

Akihiko makes no such movement. He leers down at Sasuke, who glances up at him with his arm weakly pressed into his bleeding side.

"I will not take him." he says.

Sasuke blinks and Asami gapes.

"Th-This is not the fuckin' t-time to be—disob-beying me!" she exclaims. "We're _dying_ , Hiko!"

Akihiko snorts a sound between a grunt and a wheeze. Asami's stomach drops— _threatening._

"Stop it!" she snaps.

"This is not a wise decision." he offers, pretending he hadn't just threatened two people already bleeding out.

"I cannot tell you h-how much I'm n- _not—_ in the fuckin' mood for this."

Sasuke's watery cough alarms her to the fact that they're on the _brink_ of practically letting an uprising start if they don't meet the leaders at the right time and decide to fucking _die_ instead.

"If he won't... My summons will—"

"Sorry, do your s-summons got healing properties they can d-dispense... immediately? No? Then—shut up." She wrenches what she can of her neck to glare at Akihiko. _"Now._ Unless you wanna be the o-one to explain to the Hokage wh-what—happened. And Masa. And U-Uzumaki Naruto."

Akihiko's eyes glint dangerously, but he finally, _finally_ concedes. He trots between both of them, pointedly turns to Asami first, and lowers his massive antlers. The sharp, almost glittering horns begin to glow with sea foam chakra that pours into her biggest wound, and it's enough to slow the bleeding. He imperiously trots to Sasuke's side and does the same.

"It'll be enough to save us f-from immediate death..." Asami explains to Sasuke.

"We should get going then." he replies.

"Our stuff?"

He shakes his head in small juts. "With all that chakra we just... expelled, the area has more or less... quarantined itself to anyone nearby... No one will c-come here."

Their biggest obstacle turns out to be mounting Akihiko. He's enormous enough to saddle both of them and not break a sweat, but their bodies are weak and he has to lower himself down for them to even manage half-climbing him. Asami slumps on the back of his neck, her face burying into the soft fur there. She reaches back her good hand to help Sasuke, who winces at every movement of his torso, and he finally slumps against her back.

"Sunotori, Hiko." Asami reminds him. He snorts. "Might b-be a shit ride, Uchiha. Don't fall off. We're not comin' b-back for you."

Sasuke grunts, only half-amused.

  


The ride ends up hurting—a lot. Asami suspects Akihiko is doing it on purpose because he'd rather let Sasuke die than save _both_ of them. Still, it's a silent trip and the wind blows past them as he effortlessly leaps through the terrain and around giant trees.

The elephant is not in the room—rather, it's riding on Akihiko's back along with them. Part of Asami feels... bad for how that went down, for how Sasuke had to find out. She'd mostly been talking out of her ass when it came to... whatever the fuck his relationship with Naruto was, but apparently all the things she spewed hadn't been _wrong._

Meanwhile, the pain of the situation isn't gone, lingering in the pit of her stomach like tar, but that near-death match had been a load off. Exhaustion rules her now, sloshing her brain up so much that she can't focus too much on it. Almost a blessing, to be honest.

They probably won't ever speak of this so long as they both live. (Which, if Akihiko has it his way, won't be for much longer.)

"Stay with me, Uchiha..." she mutters when she begins to feel Sasuke's chakra calm to almost distressing levels. She says that, but... She's on the verge of passing out too. They've both lost a _little_ too much blood; anymore, and they might need a transfusion—which probably won't be available where they're going.

With her perception of time distorted, she has no idea how long it takes to get where they're going—it feels like anywhere from a half-hour to an entire night. Try as she might, she drifts in and out of blurry consciousness, wondering how soon it will be before she dies.

  


Not minutes later, Akihiko softly announces, "We have arrived."

Her eyes pry open and multiple chakra signatures cross her senses. They're definitely here.

She tries to sit up, but Sasuke's weight against her is like a boulder.

"Hey, Uchiha." she rasps. "You dead...? Fuck, you're heavy..."

She jerks her good shoulder where his head is resting.

"Seriously, get up. We made it and if you fuckin' _died,_ I'm gonna kill you."

There's no reply for what becomes a few long, _terrifying_ seconds. New adrenaline resuscitates her brain into racing through every possible outcome of her return to the village without him—surely, it means _death—_

  


And then Sasuke grunts.

  


"You fucking _ass."_ she heaves, bumping his chin harder than necessary. "Get the f-fuck off me, at least. We're _here."_

It takes him a moment and effort that she dreads having to use when walking across the terrace.

"Lower us." she tells Akihiko, and he does; slowly and gently.

Asami slides off his back, almost crumpling to the ground, but manages to use his head for balance. She glances at Sasuke.

"Need you to w-wait here." she says, putting a weak hand up. "Hiko will stay with you, so d-don't fucking _die_ or I'm gonna gouge out your eyes and keep 'em as trophies."

Sasuke manages a little smirk and a huff.

Asami takes a deep breath, braces herself, and then starts her long trek to find the owner of Sunotori Inn.

She had been the one who set the inn as their meeting place with the leaders of the rebellion on the other side of the border. The owner was her aunt; one Matsumoto Miume from the other half of the Matsumoto Clan Asami hadn't even known existed until they met—what a mess _that_ had been.

The inn itself is situated above a town by the name of Hantoki Village—she's never actually been there before, always having preferred to travel through the forest to reach the inn, which Akihiko had fortunately chosen to do to. The ride had been stupidly rougher for it, but the cut travel time had been worth it.

As she limps, holding her shoulder so that the gash won't open any further, numerous smaller signatures flood her senses; her aunt's crows roost the tree branches above, all sleeping, and Asami subconsciously locks onto one—Pan. That little _shit;_ she's going to get him eventually.

Moving her body when it's past the point of exhaustion is _agonizing._ Her vision swims, her head doesn't feel like its there, she probably has internal bleeding, which can _not_ be good news. The only thing keeping her going right now is that if she dies, Sasuke will likely die too, and they will have failed a mission that quickly became pivotal, and the Leaf will be left to pick up the pieces.

  


~~_If she dies, she won't get to see Hinata again._ ~~

  


So she shoves forward, leaning on every tree available to make it. It's been a while since she's come to visit, but the soft little light her aunt keeps at her window is ever the beacon she focuses on to make it. She's got no idea what the _hell_ she's going to say, or really, how her aunt will react, but now's not the time to worry. Miume can kill her later after they get help.

Successfully, she rounds the corner of the staff's quarters building and finds the staircase that leads directly to her aunt's room. The staircase is eyed with disdain—walking on flat enough land is one thing, but stairs? She'll die before she reaches the top.

That's proven by how she collapses at its base, leaned over, panting, and just a few wrong moves away from reopening what Akihiko had healed of her worst wound. Her wrist falls and hits a rock, and she stares at it for a moment before sighing in resignation. Auntie won't be happy to be alarmed like this, but what other choice does she have?

Asami picks up the rock and tosses it at the window. It's a weak toss, not enough to crack the glass, but enough to make an audible noise that stirs the birds. She feels Pan's chakra liven.

She stares at the window with its curtains drawn and wonders if she'd been heard. Maybe not. Maybe she'd pass out before Miume realized she was there. Maybe Sasuke was going to bleed out too.

The curtain rustles and then the door flies open.

"Asami!"

_Ah, there it is._ The soothing voice of her aunt rings from above.

"Child, what are you—Are you _bleeding?_ What happened? Whose blood is that?"

She sounds frantic and not all at once. Asami is reminded that, _Oh, this is bad._

_Oh. This is_ bad. Her brain launches immediately.

"Fuck, Auntie—" She coughs, "Okay, please don't panic but me and my friend—not friend, whatever, I'unno—we got into a fight maybe—can't remember how it started _fuck—_ but now we're here and I need you—he's bleeding and I'm bleeding and Auntie, we're both bleeding and Auntie, _Auntie,_ I fuckedupandIcan'tfixit _pleasehelp—"_

Then it's _her_ voice that's becoming more frantic because she _does_ remember why all of this started and how they got into it and _how_ they took it out on each other. Gods, how does she _look?_ Falling all over herself and dripping blood onto the grass and staircase that _someone's_ going to have to clean.

The confusion is in Miume's face too—she's barely awake and her tired mind is slowly processing the situation. For a moment, it looks like she may panic, but she takes a deep breath (that sounds like an exasperated sigh, because this wouldn't be the first time Asami's brought trouble along) and then speaks.

"Where is your friend?"

Her impulse is to snap, _He's not my friend!_ but that's a minor detail costing them precious time.

"A-Around the fron—Akihiko, he—"

Before she can finish, Miume sweeping off towards the forest line. She whistles lowly and from above, wings flap; it's not long before black plumage gleams under the moonlight and Asami's surrounded by glinting eyes in the dark.

Her body is calling for her to succumb to unconsciousness, but then she remembers— _Sasuke._ Sasuke, who has a _terrible_ reputation. Sasuke, whose public reception is actual shit. Sasuke, who had once been an _international criminal._ Wasn't there a point where wanted posters for him had been hung near the inn?

That's enough motivation to push her off the ground, because what if, on the off chance, Miume _recognizes_ him? It's not like Asami's kept her posted on the events back in the village (though she likely knows based off the planted informants she has everywhere, namely... Asami's mother), so Sasuke could still come off like a criminal to her.

"Fuck, Auntie. W-Wait!"

She stumbles after Miume, nearly running head-first into every obstacle in her way. Miume turns around in time for Asami to trip into her arms.

"W-Wait, hang on..." she pants. "I'll—I'll go w-with you..."

"You need to sit down, Asami." Miume reprimands. Only proving her point, Asami coughs messily and then spits more blood onto the grass.

"No, listen," she tries to hurry, "my friend, h-he's—uh..."

Knowing she won't give it up, Miume sighs and lets her lean on her while they make their way to Akihiko waiting just inside the forest's edge.

  


Meanwhile, Sasuke is clinging to consciousness as best as he can, hung over Akihiko's broad body. He hasn't stopped emanating murderous intent since he was summoned, but at this point, Sasuke couldn't care less. The time Asami's taking to come back either means she passed out along the way, is about to die soon, or completely forgot about him.

He wouldn't put that last option past her.

Just as he's about to give in to blacking out, there are voices heading his way. Akihiko perks under him, so they're not enemies.

"Look at you, child, you're a mess." says the voice of an older woman. "What would your uncle say?"

A voice mutters in response, something that sounds like, _I know, I look like shit okay, Auntie,_ please.

"I already have enough white hairs as it is. Do you truly want me to mimic him entirely?"

"You're st-still beautiful to me."

"Always the charmer, child. You don't have to flatter me to save your life."

Sasuke stares.

From the darkness manifests a blob that he can't discern bodies out of, followed by grass that won't stop moving. Asami plops right under the bend of Akihiko's neck into his head. The woman with her takes stock of the situation.

"What on earth did you children do to each other?"

Asami peeks from around Akihiko's fur to glare at him; he can only barely make it out. It seems to say, _Not a word._

Bleeding out as he is—there aren't many words he can muster at the moment.

"If he dies, I call dibs on his liver." says a grim, raspy voice.

"Shut up, Pan." Asami snaps, almost falling over with the force of her arm swiping out at something dark.

That's when Sasuke sees them—the _crows._ They're _surrounded_ by them that have eyes flickering in the moonlight like oil spills.

Images of a fight from another life flash from through his mind; black crows breaking out of a body and red eyes drawing him in. He quickly jabs it from his mind and looks at the woman.

She's far older than either of them—'auntie,' Asami had called her—and by the slight dishevelment of her ginger hair, she'd just been woken up. She is, frankly, very beautiful, and the lines around her face only seem to add to that.

He coughs, and the torso movement strikes more pain through him.

"Yes, well," she says, slightly winded, "Akihiko. Help me get them to a room and I'll wake up Pyon."

Akihiko huffs, clearly not pleased to be having to help them _(him)_ again, but says nothing. Soon, they're trotting around the back of the building.

"Not the stairs." Miume murmurs. She leads them to a door past the staircase, one that's too small for Akihiko and his sprawling antlers to fit through. "I'm afraid you'll have to walk." Miume says.

Asami curses under her breath. They dismount Akihiko and Miume opens the door, gets a candle, and lights their way. Asami makes sure Sasuke goes in first.

Having to walk is _excruciating_ and neither of them know how they make it to the room that isn't even all that far down the narrow hallway. Miume opens the door for them, lights a few more candles, and then guides each of them to the one of two beds in the room.

Sasuke has been entirely too conscious of the crows—they noticeably stopped before the building entrance, but now they were outside the window. Perched. Staring. Watching. Waiting. His skin crawls.

"Wait here." Miume instructs, and then hurries from the room.

"She's very calm about this." Sasuke practically slurs.

Asami is flopped over on the bed opposite of him and he suspects she's as much on the verge of passing out as he is.

"I'm gonna get in so much trouble..." she mutters, like they're teenagers and not full-grown assassins. "Fuck, Uchiha. I fuckin' hate you."

There's no real malice there though, and Sasuke suspects she's just frustrated. They're dying, and there's not a lot either of them can do about it at the moment. He's not sure how to respond, so he doesn't.

Footsteps come back into the room moments later. The candlelight shows Asami's aunt with another older woman, middle-aged, black hair lined sparsely with whites, tied back by a red ribbon.

"Asami, why is it almost every time you're here, there's trouble?" the woman asks.

Asami coughs painfully. "Gimme a break old lady, just help us out, huh?" she says, and then starts exclaiming, "Ow, ow, ow!" when the woman pinches her near her (admittedly deep) shoulder wound.

"The linens will need to be washed." Miume sighs with a hand on her cheek, and then makes her way over to Sasuke, sitting at his side with a first-aid kit as the other woman begins to attend to Asami's deeper wounds.

Sasuke is expecting questions, but there are none. Miume is clearly not a medical shinobi—if she is a shinobi at all. He can sense a working chakra system in her, but it's subdued, like it's inactive most of the time. Her hands are gentle as she begins dressing Sasuke's shallower wounds, but the other woman is going to be needed for the gash in his side. Hopefully, no vital organs have been damaged.

Across the room, Asami is complaining all the while (the woman's name is... Pyon, Sasuke has picked up) and Pyon is being merciless and unsympathetic.

"You should be grateful I'm even helping at all." Pyon says, like Asami strikes a very special _wrong_ chord in her.

"Ow!" Asami cries. "I am, I am!"

Sasuke's never heard her sound anything close to pleading in his life.

"She's very noisy, isn't she?" Miume says to him, mostly in good nature. He only grunts in reply.

"Uchiha, if you say a word about _any of this,_ I swear to the gods, I'll kill you." Asami cuts in. There's a discernible falter in Miume's ministrations, but Sasuke is too tired to linger on it.

He rises to Asami's tongue instead. "You don't seem to be in any position to be making threats."

"You _fuck,_ we're _dying."_ She coughs messily to prove the point. "I can do whatever the hell I want."

"Asami, _language."_ Miume berates, which pipes her down considerably.

When she's done bandaging him, she orders him to lay down and even offers assistance when he can't move much himself. The injuries are making him stiff and unwilling, so he doesn't reject the help. He breaths out, shaky but even, when he's finally flat on the bed.

The crows occasionally peck at the window, but no one bothers to stop them. Sasuke sort of wishes someone would.

"Ready to switch?" Pyon asks, and they change places.

"Do I want to know?" is the first thing Sasuke hears Miume ask Asami, and she laughs _nervously._

  


It's almost an hour later before either of them are out of the danger zone. Pyon had not spoken to him other than to ask him a few questions about pain areas and how his insides felt. Fortunately, neither of them had anything more than internal bruising outside of the gashes and major lacerations. The last thing Pyon had said to him, rather pointedly, was that he missed Asami's auxiliary artery by mere millimeters.

Asami doesn't seemed bother by that in the least bit.

Eventually, they're left alone with Miume telling them—mostly Asami— _not_ to move much and to tap on the window to the outside for one of her crows to fetch her. Sasuke doesn't like how they still haven't left and are watching them, and wants to ask if someone will draw the curtains. He doesn't.

He lays there, focusing on leveling his breathing more than anything else.

They won't see the leaders of the "rebellion" for another day at least; they'll have to recover from both their wounds and disorientation from how Sasuke was a little too rough with their brains. Then, they'll have to explain themselves to that encampment, followed by the nearly half-a-day trip it takes to get to this inn.

The downtime because of that is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because they'll be able to recover; a curse because they'll have time to think about what happened and what brought them up to this point.

  


  


~~_A baby._ ~~

  


  


It's another intrusive thought, one that sears through his mind more severely than he thought it would. Hyuuga Hinata is pregnant with Naruto's baby. Those words in the same sentence don't make much sense. In fact, they make none at all.

"m'Sorry." Asami says suddenly, breaking the lumbering silence of the room. Sasuke doesn't turn his head to look at her, but she sounds tired and completely out of it. Yes, he's been dealing with this sudden turn of events, but she's been having to deal with the situation even longer... Where he'd managed to runaway from it, she forced herself to stay, rooted, and stare it down like that might change something.

It's both... admirable and pathetic.

She's about to speak more, add more to a conversation Sasuke isn't keen on having at all, but the door quietly opens again.

"Asami." comes Miume's voice—but it's different from the gentle lilt when she was treating their superficial wounds. This tone triggers some of Sasuke's muscles tautening in flight preparation. From the way Asami lifts her head, she can tell something is off too.

"Huh...?" Her voice is groggy.

"If you are able, may I speak to you outside?"

Asami isn't able, Sasuke can tell, but she pushes through anyway, grunting and wincing the entire way. Miume helps her out of the bed, and they shuffle from the room. He blinks once, and then closes his eyes. It doesn't involve him, so he minds his business.

Except it does involve Sasuke, and Asami's stomach drops.

"Wh-What...?"

Miume is smoking—she picks up her pipe as soon as they go into the room across the hallway—and that, right off the back, tells Asami something's wrong. She braces herself for rejection of Sasuke, which is _bad_ because she can't just send off a half-dead guy on his own. Sure, Sasuke is probably more than capable of taking care of himself, even in his miserable state, but the idea leaves a bad taste in her mouth. The former Team Seven wouldn't be happy with her at all.

One long breath and a pinch of her nose's bridge, Miume asks, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Asami cranes her neck back in a weird effort to get away from the situation, eyes narrowed in confusion and teeth pressed together. "Uh... What?"

"That boy. Uchiha Sasuke." she enunciates patiently, and the way she says his name is with some kind of watered down contempt restrained. "He had been apart of Akatsuki?"

If possible, Asami's stomach plummets through the floor. Cold sweat breaks out over her skin and her eyes widen.

_Oh, fuck._

That seems to be a recurring thought tonight.

Sasuke, former member of Akatsuki. Akatsuki, former criminal organization that hunted the tailed beasts. Akatsuki, that Uncle Jiraiya had stalked and gathered information on for years. Akatsuki—that had _murdered Uncle Jiraiya._

"Asami." Miume says again, clearly _trying_ to curb her emotions but they remain obvious. "Please explain before I become upset."

_You're already upset._ Asami's mind babbles—and Miume is the one person, the _one person_ she's never genuinely upset or pissed off, who has always been patient, giving, and understanding with her, even where her own mother wasn't. Asami has always promised herself that she would never hurt her aunt, never hurt the single adult relationship in her life that didn't come with strings attached or emotional mazes or mental hoops to jump through like a circus animal.

Yet, here they were.

"Auntie, I—" She cuts herself off, because what can she say? She brought Sasuke here, opened up a wound that was probably still as fresh as they came since she struck it herself— _Asami_ had been the one to accidentally break it to Miume that Jiraiya was dead. Now here she was again, picking at flesh that was still raw and red and struggling to heal; because Miume is staring at her and her eyes are glossy in the dim light, and smoke billows from her pipe like a chimney and _Auntie that's so bad for you please stop smoking so much—_

"Th—... There was no where else for us to go." she blurts. "We got into a fight because—It wasn't supposed to happen, I—I needed this mission to get out of the village because—And I didn't know that he was the _same,_ like, how'm _I_ supposed to just _know_ that? I don't even care if he comes back to the village because I don't care about him, but then _Naruto—fuck._ Naruto and Hinata, they—I don't know what I'm doing and he doesn't know what he's doing either n' we're both just—we just had to—to get it out! I don't know what's happening! I don't know how to feel! I don't know what to do!"

She's hyperventilating and Miume is staring, but she keeps going.

"And I don't know what I'm gonna say when I get back! 'Hey, sorry for leaving n' making it seem like I hate you now'? No! I can't say that! Nothing can change the fact that I'm going back n' she doesn't love me n' she's in love with someone else n' she _married him n' now she's pregnant n' I can't have a family with her n' I don'T KNOW HOW TO **DEAL WITH IT—** "_

By the time Miume's arms are around her, she's sobbing loudly and uncontrollably, probably waking up the entire inn. Her good arm clutches desperately at Miume's night robes, making a slobbery, snotty mess of them. Her body jerks, convulses, and everywhere, everything is just _pain._

"I s-s-still l-l-love h-her..." she wails, mindlessly pushing herself further into Miume's arms. "I'm s-s-so sorry that I b-br-brought him h-h-here—I c-c-completely _forgot._ "

She's such a piece of shit. She can't control her emotions. She can't confront her emotions. She can't keep from taking them out on someone else. She can't stop from dragging someone down with her. She can't stop from dumping everything on someone else.

  


_I'm the worst._

  


That's the last thing she remembers before passing out.

 

•

 

Sasuke lays there and stares at the ceiling. These walls are not thick, and he doubts he's the only person who can hear the mess going on in the room across the hall. What had that woman asked Asami, said to her that prompted such an intense and unrestrained breakdown?

He's not particularly interested in her anguish and misery—or, he wouldn't be if it wasn't linked to his own in such a terrible, fucking _awful_ way.

When Asami told him that he'd wasted Naruto...

His stump begins to throb and his left palm begins to burn. These phantom pains torment him.

He can't look down his nose at her if they've ended up in the same fractured, sinking boat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw u make everyone's lives miserable, even when u don't mean to and also your heartbreak will probably never go away
> 
> Man, Asami and Sasuke just can't catch a break, can they? Do they deserve it? Probably not. Feel free to leave a comment, and thanks for reading! :^)


	7. you're almost willing to reach for string to climb back up when you hit rock bottom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With some downtime available to them, unfortunate partners Asami and Sasuke recover from their petty smackdown. Sasuke becomes more familiar with strange aunts and their disarming auras, and Asami is nosy.

Her arm is in a sling so she has to settle for clumsily splashing her face with one hand. Her eyes are disgustingly puffy. It's a shocker they can even stay open, but at least the cold water helps the swelling.

After that's done and she changes into the fresh set of clothes Miume left for her, she goes back to the room where they were treated in last night. Sasuke looks up as soon as she opens the door.

They stare at each other.

_I hate this._ Asami thinks.

"How're you feeling?" she asks awkwardly, closing the door behind her and plopping onto the bed across from him. She crisscrosses her legs and ignores how her body cries about being sore. "Still alive?"

"Obviously." he responds, hand trailing along the new robes that cover his injured side. She glances at that spot.

"Knicked ya pretty badly, huh?" A teasing grin twitches her lips.

"It's barely even a scratch."

Images of splattered blood pouring from slashed wounds among split earth flash through their minds. Barely even a scratch at all.

She clears her throat awkwardly and a silence follows.

"...Don't force it." Sasuke says, eyes narrowing slightly.

She flips him off.

"All I'm gonna say right now is... I'm sorry. That was a shit move from me and you didn't deserve that."

He blinks at her, surprised at the apology like he's never heard one in his life, and she was the last person he expected it from. Neither of them mention the fact that tears had been shed last night.

"Anyway..." Asami says, leaning back on her good arm, "I sent Akihiko to retrieve our stuff from ground zero, he should be back soon... Unless Pan veered him right off course and into another dimension..." She adds the last part as a muttered afterthought. "You up to eat, or what? Pyon-Pyon says we lost a lotta blood and gotta replenish... We can either eat in the dining area or outside if you, y'know, want more privacy."

Sasuke seems grateful for the privacy option and nods.

"Right, well..." She gets to her feet, having to brace herself against the nightstand because she's still woozy. "If you go out the door we came through last night, turn the corner to your right and then walk all the way up, there's a seclusion of tables for the staff on the deck. Everyone's working morning shift now, so no one should be there to bother you. I'm gonna go tell Pyon we're up for a meal."

She heaves a sigh and then shuffles from the room. Sasuke watches her go. That hadn't been awkward at all.

He glances at the window—and draws up short when where a few crows are perched on the outside sill. Suddenly, eating outside doesn't seem like an appealing idea. Why are there so many crows around this area?

Ignoring his discomfort, he tests out his motor skills and economy of motion while getting to his feet. Asami is right; they lost too much blood for comfort, but a day of rest will do them good. They have the time, after all. What's the point of pushing it? He's already sent a messenger hawk back to Kakashi relaying their progress, so the mission is still in a tentative green zone.

The wall is begrudgingly used as a crutch as he wobbles out of the room and back down the hallway barely remembered from last night. Making it even that far is a struggle, but he pushes through, opening the door.

It's a bright morning—a sort of new world after the storm—and he closes the door behind him to lean against the wall next to it, letting the sun's rays bathe his skin.

He's tired, more than he thought he'd be, but after a fight like that... Does he feel heavier or lighter? It's nothing he'll admit, but he rounds back on how he'd been looking down his nose at Asami for being so distressed over Hinata, pretending like he was different from her.

To be thinking about it _now_ though... What a lost cause.

Deeply breathing, he walks along the wall and turns the corner like Asami had directed, only to pause—there's the outside windowsill of their guestroom, and crows are perched on it. They all stare at him. Despite not being on the verge of death anymore, they still look like they're waiting for him to drop so they may pick his bones clean.

It's not worth his distress, he decides, and holds his chin up while teetering past them. They watch the entire time, eyes boring into his back even after he's several meters away.

The deck is where Asami said it would be, and thankfully, it's empty. He's not sure where to sit so he takes the corner table with the chair tucked farthest in and plops into it, heaving breath that he isn't sure how he managed.

Slumping into a position that doesn't want to drag screams out of him and resting his head on the chair's back, Sasuke closes his eyes and unravels his tired senses across the premises. While not a sensor like Asami or Karin, he can feel numerous chakra signatures humming around him; rather than tourists, the popularity must stem from its low profiling. He'd know; he's passed this way before—they must be near the tri-border of Reeds, Moss, and Fire Country—and never gotten an inkling about this place.

How quiet it is feels so odd and... off, even though it shouldn't. He finds himself in these kinds of positions often: alone with nothing but the sights, sounds, and feels of nature. It suits him much more than walking through the streets of a village where eyes bore into his every move, breaths held, movements tight. It's the kind of situation that brings upon the thought, _No rest for the wicked._ Time and again does that seem to prove true in the Leaf.

He is the wicked, and they deem he deserves no rest. It's fortunate that he'd learned to stop caring about what other people thought of him from a young age—apathy's shield builds itself when the whispers constantly follow. Apathy given, Sasuke still doesn't want to linger in that place any longer than he has to, Naruto's silent pleading or no.

He clicks his tongue, irritation twitching at his brow.

How can Naruto even have any room left in him to use for Sasuke anyway? He's married. With a child on the way. There's no room for Sasuke in that picture. How did he ever think he was in there to begin with?

_I—_

Before his brain can latch onto that dark, endless tangent, an unfamiliar signature breaches his senses, accompanied by the sound of sandals walking across wood. He fully expects it to either a curious patron or a wary staff member, but it's neither. Instead, it's—

Sasuke sits up.

Asami's aunt (Miume, her name is. He doesn't know if his fractured, battered memory is serving him right) stands two tables away, a large crow perched on her shoulder and eyeing him just as the rest of its murder does. Akihiko—Asami's uppity asshole of a summon—is paused just off the rise of the deck, also staring at him.

He suddenly feels very exposed.

She says nothing for a long moment and her dark eyes bore into him just like her crows'.

Various things to say run through his mind, but he settles on the nicest of them. He pushes out of his chair, forcing the forgo of using furniture or walls as a crutch, and then bows his head.

"Thank you for your hospitality."

If she doesn't respond, he won't be surprised. Discontent is clear in the subtle lines of her face, particularly around the eyes and corners of her mouth. Her crow caws, snapping her from her reverie and then flaps its way over to Akihiko, landing perfectly between his wicked sharp antlers. Akihiko snorts, shaking his head, but the crow is stalwart in its perch.

"The pleasure is all mine." Miume finally responds, full of practiced courtesy.

He can't help think about how beautiful she is again; she must've been a geisha at some point in her life by the way she's scoring all the points on the rubric. Sasuke hadn't known Asami had any family left other than her mother, let alone family so far from the village like this.

They gaze across the tables, sizing each other up, but Miume eventually offers a small (albeit tight) smile before taking a seat at the chair across from his. He follows in suit.

"I do hope my niece didn't trouble you too much." she says, folding her hands neatly in her lap.

It's something to snort at—the kind of thing he usually _would_ snort at, but the circumstances aren't right. There's too much baggage in a sack with threads splintering more and more by the second.

"It's nothing to worry about." he assures, but the words don't seem to convince her in the least bit.

"Mm, yes," she hums, gazing squarely at him, "and I'm sure her shoulder will heal well enough."

His eyes narrow slightly at the implications. "...It was a mutual misunderstanding."

Her reply isn't immediate, and Sasuke suspects she's sizing him up for how much of a liar he is—but he's not. Not entirely, in any case. Asami clearly hadn't meant to spill... _that,_ and it'd taken Sasuke by such storm that he reacted on impulse. It was foolish and he regrets it. He doesn't regret how much steam it let him blow off, but the potential casualties hadn't been a wanted factor.

"A misunderstanding, you say." she repeats, enunciating to show her skepticism. "Is there something more I should know about?"

The way she ever so slightly tilts her head warily reminds Sasuke of the crows that are every which way he looks. He can't help but think of Itachi, and how he'd adopted a mannerism almost eerily similar—though his was out of amusement more than anything else. He wonders; do the crows have such an affect on people? She studies him almost like a puzzle.

He resists the urge to flex his jaw. The situation is delicate, and where is Asami? Despite not knowing how capable this woman's combat skills are, he's in little condition to be fighting and would certainly prefer not to. Even three years later, his notoriety still hangs in a delicate balance. It's only because he's stayed out of the village for so long (perhaps a choice that's becoming his downfall) that things have smoothed out even a little.

"I..." he slowly begins, to show that he's both gathering his thoughts and doesn't mean to offend in any way, "had assumed Asami told you everything last night."

There's no surprise, no shadow of eyes widening, no micro-expressions to betray anything she may be feeling at finding out that yes, he had actually heard Asami's... breakdown last night. Her clear form in keeping a flawlessly blank expression is to near perfection—there's no doubt she had once been a shinobi now.

The crow roosting on Akihiko's head while the large stag enthusiastically eats grass close to the forest caws obnoxiously.

Finally, she sighs. He watches her reach into her obi to pull out a long, thin pipe. Tobacco had permeated the air last night, too.

"I do hope you don't mind if I smoke."

He wordlessly shakes his head.

After prepping and lighting it with equally delicate fingers, he watches her take a long drag like she must've needed it. He almost wishes he had a stress-reliever to fall back onto too. Every passing minute gives him more reason to need it.

She stews her thoughts over the pipe for a few long minutes and Sasuke's eyes drift back over to Akihiko and the crow—what had Asami called him? Pan—and finds them staring. The crow's beak moves like it's speaking to Akihiko, and Sasuke can see Akihiko's nostrils flare in a derisive snort before replying. He's not proficient at reading a deer's mouth form around words, but as Akihiko stares keenly at him, his lips say something like, _Pathetic._

Sasuke... cannot find it in himself to disagree at the moment.

Miume's voice pulls him away from the distraction. Her tone is smoother now, less restrained and more lenient.

"I know Asami can be... reckless." she allows. "So tell me... What is your side of things?"

He blinks in surprise at first, the question, and second, its gentle timbre. She can tell, by the way her eyebrows soften. For... obvious reasons, it's not often that he's asked for his side of the story—most people are ready to blame him and close the case. That's part of the charm of a practical stranger, he supposes; they're willing to listen far more than most.

It's at that moment bare footsteps join them on the deck.

"Wow, sorry that took so long, I was—"

Asami immediately draws up short at the sight before her—a surprised Sasuke and her aunt, once again smoking like a chimney, with that... that _look_ on her face. Not just any look, no. _That's_ the Look that she's used time and again to get Uncle Jiraiya to absolutely break under the pressure and spill his guts. (Probably the only reason Asami had ever had any blackmail material on the old man to begin with.) Why's she giving that look to Sasuke?

"What the hell have you been saying to her?" she hisses, glaring at him.

Before Sasuke can reply, Miume does first.

"Asami." she begins patiently, pulling the pipe from her mouth. Chills shudder right up Asami's spine at the tone. "It's very rude to interrupt someone's conversation. Why don't you go back and see to it that you and your friend here have a filling breakfast?"

It's _obviously_ not a suggestion, and she can't so much as take a second to flip off Sasuke before Miume's smile spins her right back around and ushers her back inside.

Eyebrows raised, Sasuke whistles lowly. Miume allows herself a small chuckle.

"Now, go on." she encourages, and that pacifying tone is... loaded.

...Where does he start?

He briefly explains who he is to Asami, and how they've only recently become more closely acquainted over the last half-week. The details of the mission are skimmed on for security purposes, and Miume seems to understand that since she doesn't pursue it.

"I spend most of the time outside of the village." he explains vaguely. "So I'm not entirely caught up on current events there, but..."

He trails off, unsure how to continue. Miume has been listening the entire time, very closely in fact; making it seem like he's both _worth_ listening to and that, where the conversation is going, she understands why what happened, happened. She may actually not, but her entire aura is so disarming that it's... almost startling. The years of experience she has on him are truly starting to show.

He breathes out evenly through his nostrils, glancing back towards the animal partners in crime. More crows have landed on Akihiko's broad back, and seem to be picking at his fur.

"I share a... situation, you could say, with Asami." he finally manages in a steady voice. "I'll speak frankly. She took this mission to escape a reality she let happen. I'm sure you already know about that. I'll admit, I keep out of the village for similar reasons, but I knew what I was doing and the possibilities and outcomes of that, I was prepared for it." He almost wants to laugh at himself, because what a fool he's been. "As you can see, that hasn't really gone the best."

"Here is the irony of the situation," his mouth lets out before his brain can stop it, "the reason she left was the same reason we fought. The same reason that I actually engaged her in a fight to begin with—it turns out the woman she's in love with is pre—"

His voice almost catches on the word—the _word,_ the awful, _disgusting_ word. His throat works around it and he only skips one beat.

"—is pregnant. She's pregnant, and I guess Asami just can't deal with it." His mouth is dry, but it won't stop moving. His eyes burn and phantom throbbing threatens an oncoming headache. "That has nothing to do with me, actually—or. It wouldn't, if the woman wasn't pregnant with the child of the person I lo—"

That's exactly where he stops.

Because, _What the hell, why did I almost say that to a stranger?_

Because that's a secret that he's supposed to take with him to the grave.

Because fuck, it hurts _unbearably_ to be vocal about the biggest mistake he's ever made in his life—and with his record, that's _saying_ something.

His head slightly ducks on its own in self-preservation to hide the red tint at his cheeks. The tips of his ears poke through his dark hair, exposing him by extension.

Miume doesn't wait for him to look back up—not like he can anyway—before humming, "Oh, I see."

The smile is in her _voice._ His shoulders tense.

"Don't fret." she reassures, sounding fully and unapologetically _amused._ "When you get to be my age, dear, you tend to gain that kind of aura others find comforting."

Which Sasuke knows is utter _bullshit_ because that sort of thing only comes from years of practice in very specific lines of work. His geisha theory is solidifying by the minute.

He takes one long, deep breath because this is stupid behavior from him, and what does _he_ have to be embarrassed about? It's not like his feelings matter anymore, and maybe they never did. He's going to have to work through this like a grown, mature adult eventually.

With less blood, next time. Less almost killing the nieces of disturbingly kind women.

Squaring his shoulders, he finally looks back up. She's been watching him the entire time, very humored with everything now instead of that standoffish coolness stiffening her ever action earlier. With the lines of her face smoothed and a smile tugging at her lips, she's even more beautiful.

"You know," she says in a faux-thoughtful voice, "you don't seem to be that same boy, so I suppose..."

She trails off and Sasuke finds himself sitting a little too forward in anticipation of what she'll say next.

Caws chorus and an elegant wisp of smoke curls from her mouth before she sighs.

"That's quite enough, Asami. Bloodline traits shouldn't be used for petty means."

Miume rises from the table the same time as Asami groans from her hiding spot. Sasuke blinks.

_Wh—_

Asami manifests out of thin air and Miume moves to the edge of the deck, snuffing out her pipe and pulling something else from her obi. Akihiko trots up immediately.

_He doesn't like humans,_ Sasuke is about to say—right before Akihiko bows his head and eats all too willingly out of Miume's palm.

"Think it's just you he don't like." Asami snickers.

Akihiko snorts in his direction when Miume indulgently scratches under his chin.

  


Breakfast is quiet. Whether that be from the borderline-awkwardness between Asami and Sasuke or the fact that neither of them can stop eating, not much is said. Sasuke still ponders over his strange, mostly one-sided conversation with Miume, and Asami struggles to keep humiliating and upsetting intrusive thoughts at bay. They've both seen better days.

Akihiko has yet to dismiss himself, having taken to playing with the crows (something Sasuke thought would be beneath him, but apparently Asami was right; the stag likes everyone _but_ him).

When Asami's finally slowed down on devouring everything but the table, she peers over the rim of her bowl at Sasuke.

Only bits and pieces of his conversation with her aunt had crawled into her ears, and she's been dying to know more. What could they have _possibly_ been talking about for Miume to actually _shoo_ her away? The fact that Miume had been using the Look branded everything even more suspicious; added Sasuke's clear reluctance to start any conversation with her, and Asami's curiosity was a couple stomach growls away from eating her.

She presses her lips together. Her bowl and chopsticks set onto the table decisively.

"Hey," she calls, but Sasuke speaks at the same time.

"Why are there so many crows around this area?"

Her eyebrows raise and her bottom lip sticks out, surprised. She looks out to the clearing where Akihiko still prances around like a fawn, chasing the crows.

It used to creep her out as a teenager after she first found Miume and Sunotori, but logically, there had to be a reason all the crows gathered here, she'd just never really bothered to ask much about it. They, too, had eventually become apart of her life and extended family of... weirdos. Auntie Miume was a strange woman in many ways, but that's one of the things Asami has always loved most about her.

She sits back in her chair and shrugs, still watching the animals. "Beats me." she frowns, rubbing at her eyes. "Never really asked... Auntie just says this is where they live."

"Are they summons?"

"That's about as much as I know."

Sasuke's been very weird about the crows, but after all the guts they've messily and carelessly spilled, she's not keen on prying anymore into his psyche or personal life.

"...Hey." she tries again when she thinks it's appropriate. "I—" He looks at her and her throat works around the words, because what's there to say? Everything's a mess. "I'm real sorry."

"You already apologized."

She narrows her eyes. "Shut up. I'm being for real here." she hisses. "...You shouldn'a had to find out that way... I shouldn'a said those things like that..."

The very blatant indifference from Sasuke is almost enough to set Asami off, but she aggressively reminds herself that it'll only make things worse. They haven't even completed their mission yet. (Going at each other's throats again can wait until afterwards.)

Sasuke lets out a small sigh, somewhat exasperated. "What's done is done." He glances to see her glower and rolls his eyes. "Your guilt is excessive and strange. I was going to find out eventually anyway."

Asami groans in disgust. "Remind me never to apologize to your dumbass ever again." She starts noisily collecting their dishes and trays, spite tinging her every move.

Willfully quiet, Sasuke watches her and how she pridefully refuses to ask for any help with collecting everything. He doesn't offer because one, she'd only get more irritated, and two, he doesn't feel like it.

When she has everything balanced on on flat hand and is carrying it back into the building, Sasuke calls out.

"I'm sorry, too."

She falters in the doorway, good hand too full for her to consider turning around, but he can imagine the surprise on her face and it amuses him. Sasuke hadn't used to be someone who apologized, but...

He thinks he's become a better person in many ways.

  


(He only wishes he'd become braver, too.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw the more you think about it, the more similar u find urself to a person u don't even like
> 
> So it's been a while... I just got lazy. Fortunately, I finally finished a chapter that was stumping me and have moved onto the final chapter. It'll be over soon! Thanks for reading~ :^)


End file.
